The Moon Thief
by Flying Sword
Summary: Ryou is new in school. When he sets eyes on the Beautiful Bakura, he doesn't know what to make of it. But Bakura isn't what he seems to be, and just knowing him could be enough to send Ryou's world into pieces around him. Rated T. Pairings unrevealed.
1. First Sight

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Unfortunately... * sigh *

**Chapter 1: First Sight**

For beauty being the best of all we know

_Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims_

Of nature

_**- Robert Bridges; The Growth of Love**_

Ryou didn't want to be there.

He looked around himself nervously. The throng of students pushing past him barely seemed to notice him, if at all. The noise was almost deafening as he fought to get through the heavy people traffic. He could hear shouts and kids talking about what they did over the school holidays as he passed them, snippets of conversation that got lost in the overall sounds. He felt himself get pushed this way and that way, until he finally fell out of the jam, hitting a row of lockers to his right.

'Ow...' he muttered, rubbing his right shoulder.

Domino High School was unfamiliar to him. On his journey there, he'd wondered what it would be like. It was not what he'd been expecting, he thought to himself. It was a tall building, with long rectangular glass windows and a big concrete facade. A few trees grew around the back of it, and what little he had seen of the sports grounds were large and impressive. It was densely populated, and it had been a fight to get through the corridors. He didn't know anyone there, but he supposed that was OK. He had never been altogether good with people.

He pushed himself off from the row of lockers, and shouldered his bag once more, which had fallen to the ground at the sudden impact on his arm. He pulled out the scrunched up piece of white paper that was his timetable. Keeping close to the edge of the corridor, he scanned down the list for Monday 14 April. He found his first period class – English. Well, that was good, at least. English had been his favourite subject in his last school. The number M142 was next to the subject name. He considered it for a moment. A letter for the teacher's name, and the number was his class. He looked around him. Currently, he was in one of the main corridors, with no classrooms. He had just come past Room 156 before that, he recalled. He turned to look back down from where he came. Students were still thronging past him, and the noise had not quietened. He judged the stream of movement. It would be easier to go back than to go forward, he supposed, if that's where the majority were headed.

He started to walk down the corridors, repeating M142 over and over in his head. The rush of people led him past a set of stairs and an intersecting set of glass windows, which looked out onto the Canteen. He soon managed to turn a corner, which led him away from the main surge of students. He recalled the number again and looked at one of the classrooms on his left. 152. This corridor was slightly darker than the others, despite the sunny nature of the day, with a door at the very end and it's main light coming from the corridor he had just exited. He started to walk slowly down it, stopping to check the number on each door as he went. 149, 148, 147... he counted down. He passed another set of stairs and lockers, where he found 144 on his left. If the pattern was the same here, then 143 would be on his right, and 142 would be the next door down from 144. He was right. He turned towards it, but hesitated. He didn't really want to go in. He didn't want to be the strange new kid from out of town.

Reluctantly, he stretched his hand out towards the doorknob. He left it there for a few seconds, hovering, before he finally grasped it and opened it, carefully.

All heads turned toward him as he stepped into the room. It was a large room, with yellow walls. The teacher's wooden desk was situated near the window, which let in the bright beams of sunlight. The teacher herself turned to look at Ryou. Her hand was suspended in front of the chalkboard. She studied him for a moment, then smiled and let her hand drop to her side.

'Ah... you must be Ryou. Yes, the staff got an email about you this morning. Come in and stand up here with me.'

Ryou gulped as he made his way over to stand next to the teacher. He looked at the room full of students. None of them seemed particularly interested enough to give him much notice. He looked at each of their faces. Most were bored, some had mobiles under the tables, until he got to one of the pupils who was sitting near the back of the room, a desk to himself, who was staring at him. Ryou dropped his eyes and looked away shyly.

'Class,' the teacher began to announce. 'This is Ryou Bakura. He's just arrived here at the school today. Say hello.'

'Hi Ryou...' the words were barely audible, they were just a collective of mumbles and mutterings, but the teacher didn't seem to notice.

'Well then,' she said, smiling. She looked around the class for a moment, settling her eyes on a half-empty desk. 'There we go. You can share a desk with Yugi Mutou today. We're studying poetry at the moment. He'll lend you some of his notes, I'm sure.'

Ryou nodded gratefully and shuffled over to the desk, keeping his eyes on the floor. When he reached it, he looked up and was surprised to see the boy from before, smiling at him.

'Hello!' His voice said amicably. 'I'm Yugi, nice to meet you!'

'Um... Hi...' Ryou said nervously, sliding into his seat and smiling slightly. He was a little taken aback at Yugi's appearance. His hair was tri-coloured and oddly spiked. The bangs surrounding his face were blonde, and the spikes at the back were black with magenta edges. His eyes were big and wide; and a shocking violet. His face looked young, but Ryou guessed he must be around seventeen; his own age.

'How are you finding the school?' Yugi's voice chirped in again. Ryou looked at him shyly.

'Um... it's nice.' He said. 'Very noisy.'

'Yeah, isn't it!' Yugi laughed.

Ryou found himself liking Yugi Mutou quickly. His nature was irresistibly happy and bubbly, and it was infectious. He became very comfortable in his company rapidly, and much less shy. They were soon talking as if they already knew each other.

'So where do you come from?' Yugi asked him.

'Well, I was born in England, but I moved to Japan when I was three years old.' Ryou replied.

'Cool! I've always lived here in Domino... it can be so boring sometimes, but it's nice when you have great friends like mine!'

Ryou smiled at his new friend warmly. 'It must be.'

Yugi nodded. 'Oh, hey! I'll introduce you to them after class, they'd love you! Oh, well if you want, anyway...'

Ryou beamed. 'That would be great, I really need some friends here.' He said gratefully, blushing.

Yugi beamed back at him. 'Oh, we should probably get taking down some of the notes. Maruyama-san is looking a little edgy. Here, take some of mine... it's not very neat, sorry,' he said, laughing slightly through his words.

Ryou chuckled. 'No, it's fine. My writing won't be much more legible.'

They both smiled, and proceeded to copy down the notes from the board. Ryou looked at the poem in front of him. _My Last Duchess_, by Robert Browning. He hadn't had any time to read it so far, but he supposed he would read it when he got home. It looked quite long, and rather complicated, but the title intrigued him.

The bell rang soon after, and after having packed his books away, Ryou was surprised to look up and see Yugi still standing at the desk, waiting for him.

Yugi registered Ryou's blank expression and laughed. 'Did you forget already? I'm going to introduce you to my friends!'

Ryou blushed. 'Oh... how silly of me...' he slapped himself mentally for behaving like a moron. Yugi gestured for Ryou to follow and they went out into the hallway together.

'All my friends are going to be really interested in meeting you,' Yugi said cheerfully. 'There hasn't been a new kid in ages, least of all someone has interesting as you. There aren't a lot of foreign kids who want to come here. I never understood why, though. We'd be happy to have them!'

Ryou smiled at his new friend's warmth. 'That's very nice of you to say that. A lot of people just ignore the new kids.'

Yugi turned back to look at him, and smiled again. 'Well, not me! I love meeting new people, and everyone needs a friend, right?'

Ryou laughed and nodded in silent agreement as they weaved through the busy corridors. It was much easier for him to find his way around now that he had Yugi as his guide. Studying him more closely, Ryou realised that his friend was quite small in stature, but he was easily able to get in and out of the crowd in the hallways. A few times, he had had to stop and wait for Ryou to catch up.

'So,' Ryou said, after following Yugi out of one of the doors in the main foyer, into the open air. 'Who are you taking me to meet? I mean – who are your friends?'

This question seemed to please Yugi, as his smile became even brighter.

'Oh, you'll love them! There's Joey, Tristan, Malik, Mai, Duke, Tea... well, Tea isn't really a close friend... Joey doesn't like her at all by the way, but we're all nice to her, because she doesn't really have anyone else to be friends with.'

'Oh,' Ryou nodded, wondering what this Tea person was like, and why this 'Joey' seemed to hold such a dislike for her.

'Anyway,' Yugi went on, undeterred by his last train of thought, 'they'll all be very happy to see you. Joey's a bit mad, but he's got a good heart, although Tristan and him get into a lot of fights, they're like an old married couple, they're actually the best of friends. Duke likes to play games, but if he challenges you to one don't take him up on it, because he's a cheat, not in a bad way, but curiously no one ever wins – '

'Maybe he's just super-talented,' Ryou interrupted, looking slightly puzzled.

This time Yugi laughed out loud. 'Who, Duke? No way! You'd have to see him to see what I mean. You know about Tea, and I'd watch out for Malik because he has one of the dirtiest minds you could ever come across, and Mai is super sarcastic, usually to Malik and Joey, which drives both of them nuts, but don't be fooled by Joey because he actually fancies her really bad – '

As they walked in the warm sunny air, they came close to a small group of people leaning on the wall of what appeared to be a gym, and Yugi stopped short, turning abruptly to face them and suddenly wheeling towards them, a super grin on his face.

'Guys! Guys! GUYS, IT'S ME!!' He waved his hands around in the air as he ran towards the group. Ryou stood rooted to the spot, feeling awkward. He didn't want to go over and impose on them. He watched Yugi talk animatedly to the group for a few minutes, and almost had a heart attack when Yugi started to point excitedly over in his direction. He looked down at the ground, but they'd already started to walk over.

He was blushing furiously. He looked up again, and became terrified to see how close they all were. They walked a few more paces and stopped, looking at him inquisitively as Yugi leaned over and pulled Ryou in towards them.

'Hey, Ryou? Why didn't you come over? If it was because I ran off like that, I didn't mean to abandon you by proxy... I just sort of assumed you'd come with me!'

Ryou blushed and muttered something inaudible, afraid to make eye contact with any of them. Yugi didn't seem to register his awkwardness, and started introducing him to all his friends, one by one.

'Ryou, this is Joey Wheeler. Joey, Ryou Bakura.' Ryou looked up to see a tall boy with longish blonde hair down to his collar, and a big grin across his face.

'HI! WELCOME TO DOMINO HIGH SCHOOL,' he said animatedly, a broad grin covering his face. Ryou thought it was quite handsome. There was a glitter in his eyes when he looked at people. He was taken aback when he felt the blonde boy thump his left shoulder in greeting. He looked up and smiled slightly, not wanting to rub his arm in front of them all.

'Joey, you idiot, way to make him feel welcome. 'Hi I'm Joey, WHACK.' Goofball. Ignore this stupid clown, the majority of people here aren't as much as a bimbo as this one here.'

Ryou looked up to see a similarly tall boy with angular brown hair looking down at Ryou. His smile was less broad, but sincere.

'Hi, I'm Tristan, Nice to me – '

There was a loud THUMP as the blonde boy's fist careered into Tristan's shoulder.

'GOOFBALL? I was TRYING to be friendly, you sarcastic jackass.' Joey's voice interrupted Tristan's before anyone else could say anything.

'Stupid bimbo.'

'At least I have good hair!'

'My hair rules!'

'You look like a crappy version of Elvis!'

'Shut up!'

'You shut up!'

Ryou stared as the blonde and the brunette proceeded to get into a scuffle, shoving each other and arguing about whose hair was better. Everyone else seemed to be laughing.

'Um...' Yugi said uncertainly. 'I wouldn't worry about those two, this kind of thing usually happens, they'll make up in about five minutes. You'll get used to it.' He turned to face the rest of the group.

'This is Malik,' he said, and leaned in closer to Ryou. _'You know, the one with the dirty mind,' _he said quickly and subtly, before leaning out again.

'Hi,' Malik said, reaching out to shake Ryou's head. 'It's very nice to meet you. You're very cute. Has anyone ever told you how cute you are?'

'MALIK!' Yugi yelled, shocked, and slapped his friend's hand away. 'Could you PLEASE try to say ONE sentence without injecting any sexual commentary AT ALL?'

Malik smiled, his eyes twinkling. 'Well excuse me for appreciating beauty when I see it.' Yugi gaped at him, as Malik's eyes turned back to Ryou again.

'So was I right? Someone must have told a cutie like you the obvious. Are you in a relationship?'

Yugi's face went bright red, and his hand came up to slap his forehead. Ryou heard him mutter an _Oh My God_ under his breath.

'Um...' Ryou stammered. 'Um... actually no, you'd be the first. And no... I'm not... but erm... um thanks...' He felt his face go bright red, not least at the question, but the way Malik was staring at him, and Ryou had to admit, he was very attractive.

'That's a real shame!' Malik cried, leaning in closer to Ryou. 'It's very rare that I see someone as pretty as you around here...' His eyes seemed to become sultrier for a second, before he was shoved out of the way by a pale hand.

'You've never seen anyone as pretty as him around here? You have a funny way of showing it by the way you act.' The person ignored the 'Hey' that came out of Malik's form.

The voice came from a female about Ryou's height. She had blonde wavy hair and piercing blue eyes.

'Hi, I'm Mai. I would heavily advise you to refrain from going anywhere near Malik for a couple of weeks. He seems to have taken quite a shine to you.'

Ryou blushed beetroot red, but Mai's eyes didn't stray from his face. 'It's good to meet you, maybe you'll be able to inject some good manners into everybody.' Then her eyes softened, and she smiled. 'You seem like a very nice person. I know everyone's first impression has been a bit bad, but they really are all very nice.'

Ryou smiled at her revelation and nodded, looking back at Yugi as she walked away to talk to Malik.

Yugi was staring at him, his face bright red. 'I'm... I'm so sorry. Malik just takes a bit of getting used to, he's nothing to be scared of.'

Ryou smiled. 'It's fine. He was perfectly nice.'

Yugi frowned a little. 'Yeah, until he sees something he likes.'

Ryou blushed. Yugi smiled comfortingly at him and motioned for Duke to come over.

'Ryou, this is Duke Devlin, the guy who's into gaming. Duke, Ryou is new at the school, so unless it's a game of SNAP, NO GAMES.'

Ryou saw Duke's face fall as he reached out to shake his hand.

'Aw, come on Yugi, nothing like a good game of Dungeons and Dragons to make a guy feel welcome.'

'ABSOLUTELY NOT. You are not conning Ryou out of anything.'

Duke pouted, then turned to smile at Ryou slyly.

'How about a probationary period. I'll leave you alone for one month. After that, you have to play me at Dungeons and Dragons.'

Before Yugi could intervene, Ryou agreed. He turned to look at Yugi.

'Sorry, Yugi, but I do like a good game.'

Yugi rubbed his face in his hands. 'But he'll CHEAT.'

Ryou just shook his head. 'Oh well... I'll just find out the hard way, but if you guys have done it, I want to do it too.' He smiled as Yugi rolled his eyes.

'Alright... but DON'T place any money Ryou, please.'

Ryou nodded. 'Alright, if you think he's that dangerous.' Duke smiled and patted Ryou on the shoulder.

'Game on in a month then, snowy,' he said cheekily, ruffling Ryou's long and shaggy white hair.

Yugi turned around as if to introduce somebody else, but there wasn't anyone there.

'Hey... where's Tea...?' He said. He looked over at Joey suspiciously. 'Joey, what did you say to Tea.'

It wasn't even a question, as much as an accusation.

Joey looked over, startled. 'I didn't say nothin'! I – '

Everyone turned to look at him. Under their gaze, Joey wilted. 'Fine. You know in Biology this morning?'

Everyone nodded in synchrony.

'Well... we were dissecting frogs and... well... I put one of its eyeballs in her pocket, and then she found it and – '

'JOEY!!' The whole group chorused, except Malik, who seemed to be splitting his sides in half laughing, until Mai thumped him in the chest and he fell against the gym wall, coughing.

'Technically, it's not saying anything,' Joey said meekly, looking embarrassed.

'You stupid berk,' Tristan muttered, glaring at him. 'Now she's going to be crying, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT. What did you do that for?'

Joey shrugged and looked down at the floor. Yugi folded his arms and stared at his friend.

'You have to apologise.'

At the word 'apologise', Joey's head whipped up and he squinted his eyes together.

'Absolutely, not.' He enunciated slowly. 'She kept poking me in the ribs! And telling me to smile! AND TOUCHING ME!'

Yugi didn't say anything. Joey fumed.

'Why are you all even BOTHERED, none of you even LIKE her.'

Everyone muttered, except Tristan, who shoved him in the side. 'Because now she's going to come crying to ME, STUPID BERK!'

Malik glanced over at Ryou. 'Tea fancies Tristan,' he called over to Ryou. Ryou nodded in understanding.

'Well, whatever,' Mai cut in. 'There's nothing we can do about it now except carry on like before. Stupid jerk.' The latter part was directed over at Joey, who went bright red. Ryou recalled Yugi telling him how much he liked Mai.

Before anyone could say anything, the bell rang. Everyone around him groaned, especially Joey and Tristan. They all started to turn to walk in the direction of the main building.

Malik caught up to Ryou, smiling at him.

'So... how did you find us?' He said teasingly Ryou blushed and smiled.

'You... you are obviously very close to one another.'

Malik blinked unexpectedly. Clearly, he hadn't been anticipating that answer.

'Wow...' he said, confirming Ryou's suspicions. 'That's not the typical reaction that we get. What makes you say that?'

'Because of the way you rib each other. You are clearly very comfortable in each other's company.'

Malik smiled softly. 'You're very good at reading people. Very shy as well... did I scare you with what I said earlier?'

Ryou's heartbeat quickened. He made to say something false, but Malik's lilac eyes boring into him made him change his mind.

'Well... a little...' he admitted, blushing a deeper red.

Malik grinned. 'Well, it's true. I wouldn't say if I didn't mean it. Which class are you in next?'

Ryou reached inside his blazer jacket pocket for his scrunched up timetable. The uniform felt odd on him, being brand new and purchased only the day before. The trousers were OK, slim, loose and blue, but the jacket and shirt were quite heavy. For the weather of the day, at least.

He took it out and scanned down the Monday list.

'Er... World Civilizations. What about you?'

'Awesome, same class!' Malik grinned. 'You arrived just in time. We're studying Ancient Egypt, and I know it sounds dull, but it's actually really interesting. Want to be partners?'

Ryou blinked at Malik's sudden request.

'Er... sure... yeah, sure!'

Malik grinned and turned back to the rest of the group.

'Hey guys! Ryou and I are going to head off to World Civ! We'll see you at lunch, yeah?'

Mai, Yugi and the rest of the group waved and separated their different ways outside the main building.

Malik led Ryou through the door and through a new maze of corridors inside the school. They came to a dark hallway, but before Ryou could assume that this was where the class was held, Malik grabbed his elbow and started dragging him up a flight of stairs, and into a brighter corridor, with wide windows throwing in the light rays of sun.

'This is the classics department,' he told Ryou, still holding onto him as the hoards of students thronged past them. 'I reckon you'll like the class – I've got a great pair of seats right at the back, but I'm not sure about the teacher. He's a bit of an eccentric. Just do what he says and he won't go nuts.' Ryou nodded in comprehension.

Malik walked right into a room with an open blue door, and Ryou followed him cautiously in. Most of the students were already in their seats, but the teacher wasn't there yet, so he rushed to the back to sit next to Malik.

There was something about the room that he instantly liked. There were posters of exhibitions of Greek Art, and Latin satire prints on the walls. The walls were light blue, and behind their desk was a shelf of ancient books. The room still had an old-fashioned blackboard. It seemed authentic.

He'd been under the impression that they were the last ones to get in the class, but at the exact time the second bell rang, another student walked in. The sight of him took Ryou's breath away.

His hair was almost identical to Ryou's, but it was more jagged, and rougher looking. His skin was as pale as snow, and his eyes were a deep shade of brown, and narrower than Ryou's own. His face was chiselled, with the shadows of his cheekbones easily visible against his fine skin, and a square jaw. When the student's head turned slightly to the side, Ryou was shocked to see a thin scar gracing diagonally down the side of his left cheek, but it didn't mar his beauty, it seemed to make it even more perfect. He was perfect. There was nothing about his face that could be described in quite so many words. Ryou had never seen anyone so beautiful.

He realised he was staring, and turned to Malik.

'Who is _that_?' He said, gesturing at the student.

'Oh, that's Bakura. I saw your expression... he's gorgeous isn't he.'

'I... I... Yes...' Ryou said, unable to stop himself from looking back at the beautiful boy. No, not boy. He seemed different to the other people in the class. His physical appearance made him out to be their age, but he looked older to Ryou for some strange reason. He scanned down the rest of the student. He was very tall, over 6ft, slender, but still strong with fine muscularity, and his shoulders were broad. Suddenly, he looked over at Ryou, and Ryou blushed, dropping his gaze immediately.

Malik poked him in the sides. 'So are you... into guys then?'

Ryou blushed. 'Yes... I thought you were too, by the way you talked to me earlier – '

'Oh, well I'm actually bisexual, but I can see where you're coming from. He's beautiful, but he never talks to anyone except his two friends, Marik and Yami. You should see those guys too. He looks too perfect to be human, doesn't he.'

Ryou nodded. 'Yes... that's exactly it,' he murmured, gazing at Bakura.

He didn't get much chance to look at him further, as the teacher came in right at that moment.

He didn't seem to notice the presence of a new student, but proceeded to write his name up on the board anyway. Shirakawa-sensei.

'Right, class, open your textbooks to page 119 please, and do the questions on Mummification. It will do you well to actually do them this time, as they _will _be on the end of year test.'

Malik groaned. 'Sir, you didn't tell us there would be a test!'

The teacher grinned. 'I know, I just decided to have one there now. You would do well to study for it this time Malik-kun. Frankly, your score on the last test was appalling.' He smiled sarcastically and turned to write what looked like Hieroglyphics on the blackboard. Ryou looked at Malik.

'I thought you said you liked Ancient Egypt.'

'I do. The last test we did was on the History of the Celts in Ireland. Who would actually learn that.'

Ryou found his gaze straying over to Bakura once more. 'What did he get?' He asked absentmindedly, sighing in contentment.

'100%'.

Ryou blinked and whipped around.

'100%?!'

'Yeah,' Malik said, a little jealously. 'He does well in everything, he doesn't even try. He doesn't even like going to school, but the teachers can't say anything because he gets such good grades.'

'Oh,' Ryou pondered, looking over Bakura, adding intelligence to the advantages of the beautiful teen.

'What about the others? You know... his friends?'

Malik laughed. 'Well, Yami's pretty much the same except for some subjects, and Marik is useless. He hasn't passed a single test this school has to offer, but he doesn't really care. I've heard he's actually very intelligent, he just hates every single teacher here.'

Ryou chuckled. 'They sound alright to me.'

'I'm sure they are,' Malik said. 'But like I said, they don't really associate with anyone but each other. And not meaning to burst your bubble, but most of the kids in the school, male and female, have wanted them and do want them at some point. It's like they're immune to it.'

'Oh...' Ryou never thought he'd truly have a chance, but it had been nice to fantasise.

He attempted to do the questions that sensei had set them, but he couldn't stop looking over at Bakura. He eventually resorted to copying off Malik's paper, which he wasn't sure he should trust so much, but he needed to hand something in to Shirakawa-sensei.

The class ended fairly quickly, and Ryou was sad to have to leave. He'd enjoyed just looking at Bakura. It seemed that the pleasurable activity had passed all too fast. As he gathered his books up, Malik went to wait for him at the door. Ryou attempted to look for Bakura, but he'd already gone.

It turned out Malik was in a Study period the next class, so Ryou went on his own to try and find his Music class. He smiled. He loved music. He hoped that they'd be doing some kind of practical today.

The room was relatively easy to find. It was one of only four in the entire building, and he was delighted to enter the room, and seeing a cluster of instruments over in the far corner, a wide smile broke out across his face.

He was not the first student there. As he walked in the door, he almost walked right back out again. The beautiful Bakura was sitting at the desk in the far corner, staring straight ahead. He broke his glance to look at Ryou for a second. His eyes seemed to quirk at something – probably the hair, Ryou thought – then turned away again.

Ryou went to sit at the opposite end of the room. Still at the back, so as not to be too noticeable, but the opposite nonetheless. He tried his hardest not to look at Bakura as the rest of the students began to filter in, and thankfully, another boy sat down next to him, and he didn't seem too interested in the new kid.

The teacher's name was Takai-sensei, and Ryou's mood soon lightened when they were told to take an instrument from the far corner, if they played one. Ryou was one of the small number of students who got up from his seat, as did Bakura, a girl he didn't know the name of, and another boy.

Ryou went over to the corner and stood and studied the instruments for a short moment, before selecting the one he could definitely play, He lifted the small set of panpipes off of the floor and went back to his desk with them. The boy went to sit down at the piano, while the girl grabbed a pair of Bongo drums. Bakura lifted the biggest instrument there, a vintage looking guitar. _Suits_, Ryou thought. _It figures someone like him would play the guitar._

After they had all gone back to their seats, Takai-sensei began to distribute various instruments to the rest of the class; things such as maracas, triangles and little handheld bells. One of them got a xylophone. Once they all had some kind of instrument in their hands, the teacher scanned around the classroom. His eyes settled on the boy at the piano.

'Arashi-kun, would you please play a Minor chord from B-G, at this speed.' Takai-sensei set a metronome on top of the piano, and set it to a deliberately slow pace. 'Now, improvise what you can at that pace, and once you have a set pattern, I want you to just keep repeating it.'

The boy nodded, and started playing out a rhythm. He got one easily, and soon the gentle music from the piano was wafting through the room.

Again the teacher scanned the room, and this time his eyes settled on Ryou, and beckoned him up to the front of the class. Ryou, looking slightly scared, made his way up to the front to stand in front of the class. He kept his eyes on the floor, but it was made impossible by the teacher.

'Well, I've never seen you in my class before,' Takai-sensei said curiously, looking Ryou over. 'What's your name? Are you related to Bakura, by any chance? You look very alike.'

Ryou blushed a deep magenta colour. 'No... no relation... and Ryou, sensei.' He risked a glance over at Bakura, who by now was staring inquisitively at Ryou. He blushed even more.

'Oh. Well, it's nice to have you in my class Ryou-kun. If you go and sit over by Arashi-kun there, and we'll get started. Now, I want you to listen to what he is playing, and then improvise a tune for your panpipes. Can you do that?'

Ryou nodded.

'Excellent.' Takai-sensei murmured, and Ryou started to listen to the sound of the piano music. After listening carefully for a few moments and getting the pattern, Ryou began to make up a panpipes tune. It was light and airy, and he tried to make it sound like he had heard on CDs. He loved the sound of Japanese flute music, so he based it on that. Surprisingly, it worked well.

After that, all he had to do was concentrate on the music. Takai-sensei next had Bakura come up to the front, and improvise a tune to the panpipes and piano. It was as easy for him as it had been for Ryou. He began plucking out a tune effortlessly. It was good Ryou was playing an instrument, or he would have broken concentration entirely and keeled over on the spot.

It went on like this for the duration of the class, the three at the front of the room providing a solid background tune, while Takai-sensei taught the class simple rhythms and tunes using their instruments.

When the bell ended, Ryou immediately put his panpipes in the corner and grabbed his bag to leave as fast as possible. His heart was racing uncomfortably fast and his face was hot and red. He could feel Bakura's stare on his back as he rushed out of the door, anxious to get away from him.

The rest of the day was fast for Ryou. He met up with the others for lunch, and told Malik about his embarrassing period of Music because of Bakura's presence, then he had Geography with Joey Wheeler, which was eventful. He hadn't realised the extent of Joey's wit, and, uncharacteristically, he got into trouble several times for laughing when he shouldn't have.

At the end of school, he gave Malik and Yugi his address to give to the others. He was renting an apartment by himself, due to his father working in England. He paid for it using his job at a bookstore in the centre of Domino, and his father usually managed to send over cheques every month. He couldn't afford luxury, but he had enough to live on.

He said his goodbyes to his new friends, and parted ways. As he started to walk out of the main facade and through the car park to get to the school gates, he almost baulked at the site of Bakura, and what must have been his two other friends. They were standing talking by a sleek black Ferrari 360 Modena. He wondered how any of them managed to afford it.

He took a look at the other two. One kind of looked like Malik, with the same kind of hair, only wilder, similarly coloured eyes, only taller and more muscular, with a more angular face, and another looked strikingly like a taller version of Yugi – much taller – but with a stronger looking body and face. They were all perfect, beautiful, handsome, whatever words anyone could think to describe beauty, but Bakura just seemed to outshine them to him.

He found himself staring after Bakura again, and quickly looked down at the ground. He didn't want to draw attention to himself. He attempted to walk quickly past them, but he noticed that the muttering of their voices seemed to quieten as he approached. He – foolishly – risked a look up at them. They were all looking at him, not in an aggressive manner, but it unnerved him. Their eyes followed his until he looked away and rushed out of the school gates.

He was sweating. His heart was beating to the point it was almost painful, and his breathing was laboured. His face felt too hot and he was sure it was going bright red. He looked back inside the school, but they had gotten into the car. The one who looked like Yugi was driving, with the one that looked like Malik beside him, and what must be Bakura in the backseat.

He started to walk quickly along the pavement, but as the car pulled slowly out of the school gates and drove past him, he could feel more than one pair of eyes on his back.

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? Long for a first chapter, I know, but please R&R so I'll be encouraged to continue! Thankyou :)

P.S. Yes, the quotes at the start of each chapter will make sense as the story progresses.


	2. Fear

Disclaimer: No I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I wish I did, you'd have no idea what I'd make those characters do. No, but seriously, I'm just a poor authoress XD

OK, and, after revising what Demented Insane Spirit mentioned in her review, I've decided to put "" marks for when someone is speaking, and '' when someone is thinking, to make it a whole lot less confusing for you all =] Thanks for pointing it out D.I.S!

**Chapter 2: Fear.**

For naught so vile that on the Earth doth live

_But to the Earth some special good doth give;_

**Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence, Act II, scene III**

"I'm a moron."

These were the first words to come out of Ryou's mouth since the half-encounter with the black Ferrari outside the school gates. His heart, needless to say, still hadn't recovered, despite his deliberately slow pace along North Street. He couldn't forget the almost ominous feeling of being watched inside that car, even though the logical part of his mind said it was impossible.

And even then... while the feeling he had experienced had been one of fear, and nervousness, he wanted nothing more but to feel it again. The way Bakura had looked at him had been enough to invoke utter terror, yet also a yearning need to have him look at him again.

Ryou pondered this train of thought over in his head. "No. You really are a moron." He muttered to himself, dismissing the hopelessly romantic thoughts from his brain.

The weather was nice to walk home in. Ryou was lucky in that, unlike so many others in the school, he didn't need to pay for public transport to get home. The sun was beating down on the pavement below his feet, warming his thick hair and making him sweat even more under his blazer. He looked up at the clear blue sky and smiled. He liked it when it was sunny.

He turned the corner into University Square, where small streams of students were coming out from Domino State University, chatting to their friends and making plans for the next day. Ryou tried to stick close to the black railings that closed off the entrance. He didn't like huge crowds, and the sophisticated confidence the older students managed to exude compared to him in his Domino High uniform, made him feel awfully childlike.

He stopped for a minute and looked over the University. It looked much fancier and cleaner than Domino High School. It was an enormous building, which Ryou was sure stretched out even further beyond what he could see on the facade. It was red-bricked, with fancy turrets on the oldest part. The windows were shiny and latticed, and behind the black pointed railings were trees, and clean-cut lawns where students could sit and have their lunch to look out into the Square. He looked back down at his watch. 4.25pm. Ryou sighed.

"Best be getting home," he muttered.

He stuck close to the railings until he was out of the square, and into one of Domino's main shopping streets. The street was long and busy, with a central road running through the centre, full of buses and a few cars. Well-known clothes and records stores lined the streets, alongside a couple of big department stores. Due to the sunny nature of the day, the street was more densely packed than usual, the shoppers huddling together in packs of two or more.

Ryou stood and watched the congestion worriedly for a few seconds, until he realised that there was a shortcut he could take that would lead him straight into Heinemann Avenue. Although to get to the actual shortcut entrance, he would have to go into the crowds. He cursed lightly under his breath. He took his first step into the street and began to hurry quickly down the pavement, trying as hard as possible to avoid making eye contact with anybody else.

He passed a store that was thumping out loud dance music, and a delicatessen that seemed to have all of his favourite smells – which reminded him – he was hungry. He became even more hurried now to get home to his flat. It made it worse that his shyness wouldn't allow him to go past anybody else.

'Where's Yugi when you need him?' he thought miserably, hovering behind a man who was taking his time decided which shop to go into, the Mart or the Gadget store. When the man finally moved, Ryou began to walk even faster, until he got to a short alleyway between two clothing stores.

He turned abruptly to walk down it. It was full of scaffolding, but there weren't any builders there. Ryou assumed they'd gone home for the day, albeit a little early. It was quiet in there, too. Unnerving, after the din of the shoppers. Thankfully, it was short enough; Ryou hadn't liked the atmosphere of the alleyway, it was too dark for the sun being out – and came straight out into a smaller street with lesser-known shops. At the present time, he was in front of a retro looking place that sold all manners of things, usually made out of safety pins or skulls. He shuddered. He didn't much like that kind of paraphernalia.

He turned left. He congratulated himself on taking a tour of the town by himself the day before, otherwise, he wouldn't have had a clue how to get home. This street, he had noticed, consisted mostly of cafes and edgier shops than those on the main street. The corner of his lip pulled up in a small smile. Malik would have liked it. He started to walk, and he found that if he kept walking left, the shops started to become more and more spread out, until there weren't any more at all apart from a couple of corner shops. This particular street was named Lomas Park, due to the park of the same name that ran alongside the houses.

He liked this neighbourhood. The streets had trees that sprouted from the pavements, and the hot sun beat down through the leaves, throwing patches of green light onto Ryou and the ground. The houses were quite large here, much like Ryou's, but he doubted that these would be converted into flats, like his. It would take quite a well-off person to be able to afford one for themselves.

He rounded off the last corner he would take into Heinemann Avenue, where his flat was situated. The look was pretty much identical to Lomas Park, and Ryou was quite grateful to his father for giving him such a prestigious living space. He was sure it was probably more than a lot of kids at school, plus their families, were living in.

The park still ran alongside the street. Ryou looked in through the railings. Where he was, he could see a lake inside it. He knew he could also see it from his bedroom window, when he woke up in the mornings and drew the curtains.

Sooner than he expected, and really wanted, he drew up opposite the house in which he lived. He crossed the road easily, for there was never any traffic there, and jogged up the small flight of concrete steps that led to the door. Fumbling slightly with his keys, he managed to unlock the door and step into the hallway. He had to hand it to his father, the house was enormous. It housed three good-sized flats in it, and he was lucky enough to own one of them.

None of the other tenants seemed to be there yet, so he went up to his own flat without a greeting exchanged. He used his personal door key this time, and opened it. He smiled widely at the still brand newness of the place. It was already furnished, but he could now see touches of himself around the room. The few photos he had of his family were all assembled on the coffee table in the centre of the two beige leather couches. The TV was at an angle to the couches, and it was a good TV too – his dad paid for him to have cable, although Ryou insisted that it wasn't necessary – and a DVD player was beneath it.

On the wall beside the television was a framed glass painting of New York City. It was the one thing Ryou didn't really like. It was too modern... too trendy. But he didn't want to upset his Father, who had, of course, been the one to pick it out for him. Opposite the couches were the windows. These windows faced down on to the other street, which was usually a bit busier. At least the flat was well protected from any noise. Adjoining the living room was a small kitchen. The fridge didn't have much in it, and he had a good cooker, but he preferred to use the microwave. It didn't have a dishwasher, but that was OK. Ryou didn't go through many plates by himself.

After studying this room for a bit, he moved on into his bedroom. He chucked down his schoolbag on the beige carpet and flopped down on his bed. It had chrome frames with white sheets and a duvet, plus a beige throw. Ryou thought it a bit much for summer, but he didn't want to make a mess of things. On the wall opposite the bed was yet another framed picture, this one an enlarged photo of Arrow Bamboo Lake. Ryou loved this one... he could sit and stare at it for much a time... it was beautiful.

Beside the bed, was a wooden bedside table, with a lamp and silver alarm clock on it. To the left of the bed, there was a wooden chest of drawers that rested against the cream walls, and near the window on Ryou's right, from a diagonal was his wardrobe. The window itself looked out over the lake in Lomas Park, and was covered by light white curtains. Again on his diagonal left was a door that led to the smaller-sized bathroom.

Ryou sighed as he stared blankly up at the ceiling. He could not get Bakura out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. Although, he admitted to himself, he wasn't trying that hard – having Bakura in his mind was not an unpleasant mental image. Ryou remembered the piercing brown of his irises; his snow-white skin, his jagged, rough-looking hair; and sighed in absolute contentment. Surely, he had never seen someone as eerily flawless as Bakura.

He lay like that for a few more minutes, silent, just visualising the handsome stranger in his mind – and then bolted upright.

"ARRRRRRRRGH!" He moaned loudly, shaking his head in an effort to dispel the images. "Quit thinking of Bakura, Ryou! NOT. INTERESTED!" He clutched his head and tried frantically to think of as many disgusting sights as he could think of. His dad in short-shorts. Toe-rot. His dad constipated on the toilet. Malik and Bakura kissing... Ryou stopped for a moment and accidentally drooled over this possibility.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" He clutched his head again, leaping off the bed and shaking his head even worse than before. "OUT OF MY HEAD, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!" He yelled at himself, bombarding his own mind with anything that could potentially gross him out.

When he finally had something disgusting enough to shove all of the other thoughts out of his head – seeing his father naked – he sat down on the floor next to his schoolbag and look at it blankly, wondering if he'd been given any homework his first day. From what he recalled, he didn't think so, but if he became more than worried, he'd just phone Yugi's house and ask him.

Then, he suddenly remembered what he'd told himself he'd do earlier that day. He unzipped his schoolbag and pulled out the Poetry Anthology booklet, and flipped open to page 12; _My Last Duchess_ by Robert Browning. He leant his head back on the soft white duvet, and proceeded to read it:

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall

_Looking as if she were alive. I call_

_That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands_

_Worked busily a day, and there she stands._

_Will't please you sit and look at her? I said_

"_Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read_

_Strangers like you that pictured countenance,_

_The depth and passion of its earnest glance,_

_But to myself they turned (since none puts by_

_The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)_

_And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst_

_How such a glance came there; so, not the first_

_Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not _

_Her husband's presence only, called that spot_

_Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps_

_Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps_

_Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint_

_Must never hope to reproduce the faint_

_Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff_

_Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough_

_For calling up that spot of joy. She had _

_A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad,_

_Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er_

_She looked on, and her looks went everywhere._

_Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,_

_The dropping of the daylight in the West,_

_The bough of cherries some officious fool_

_Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule_

_She rode with round the terrace—all and each_

_Would draw from her alike the approving speech,_

_Or blush, at least. She thanked men,--good! But thanked _

_Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked_

_My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name_

_With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame_

_This sort of trifling? Even had you skill_

_In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will_

_Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this_

_Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,_

_Or there exceed the mark"—and if she let_

_Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set_

_Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,_

_--E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose_

_Never to stop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,_

_Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without_

_Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;_

_Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands_

_As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet_

_The company below, then. I repeat,_

_The Count your master's known munificence_

_Is ample warrant that no just pretence_

_Or mine for dowry will be disallowed;_

_Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed_

_At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go_

_Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,_

_Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity_

_Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! _

Ryou stared at the poem silently. It was haunting, and no doubt it disturbed him just a little bit. He scanned over it again, but thought it rather complicated. "I gave commands, then all smiles stopped together", Ryou muttered to himself. "How sad".

For the first time since he'd looked at his watch back in University Square, he glanced at the clock on the bedside table.

"CRAP!" He shouted to himself. It was 5.30. He needed to make some dinner for himself.

He pulled himself off of the floor and entered the living room, going over to the fridge and opening it, examining the contents. A half-empty box of eggs, milk, orange juice, and half a container of potato salad. He sighed.

"I really need to go shopping," he muttered, pulling out the eggs and milk. He opened one of the cupboards and grabbed a glass bowl, setting it on the countertop. He cracked the remaining three eggs and poured the yolks in the bowl, before proceeding to pour in some milk. He stopped short of what he was doing for a moment.

"Butter." He murmured.

He opened the largest cupboard above his head, and scanned through it to see if there was any left. There was hardly anything in the cupboard either. He rifled through the couple of cans of beans and half a jar of ready-to-eat pasta sauce, before he found an almost empty container of butter. He pried open the lid and looked inside. There was just enough to put in the glass bowl.

He took a knife from the kitchen draw and managed to get three small lumps of butter into the mixture, before chucking the empty carton into the bin over by the entrance to the open kitchen. He took a handheld whisk and started to mix the melange together, staring absentmindedly into space as he did so.

After about five minutes, he looked down into the bowl. The contents seemed smooth enough, except for a couple of small butter chunks that floated to the surface, but that didn't matter. Ryou couldn't really be bothered attempting to mash them up. He carried the bowl and its mixture over to the microwave, and set it in. After closing the door, he pressed Micro Power, High, then set the timer to 2minutes and 30seconds. He figured after a minute, he'd put what as left of the bread in the chrome toaster, so he'd have something relatively solid to eat. He contemplated cooking the beans on the oven, but then realised that they were probably out of date. He made a mental note to go shopping tomorrow after school.

While he waited, he went and sat down on one of the beige leather sofas, reaching over to grab the cordless telephone from its charger. He went to call Yugi, then realised that the number was in his address book.

He ran quickly into his bedroom and out again, this time with a small black book in his hands, and flicked through it to the 'M's as he sat down on the sofa again. He found the name 'Mutou' and looked down to find his house number, scrawled in Yugi's messy handwriting beneath the address.

Ryou picked up the phone and dialled. After about five rings, he heard the phone pick up and an older man's voice came through to him.

"Hello, thank you for calling the Kame Game Store! Solomon Mutou speaking, how may I help you this evening?"

"Er..." Ryou stumbled, not knowing who the man was.

"Erm... uh... is Yugi there?"

"OH!" The man exclaimed. "You must be one of my grandson's school friends. Hang on, I'll call him down for you." Ryou held on for a couple of moments as he heard the older man shout for his grandson to come and pick up the phone.

After another few brief moments, Ryou heard the sound of the phone switching owners.

"Hello?"

"Hi Yugi. It's me... Ryou."

Ryou wasn't particularly accustomed to speaking on the phone. At his old school, he hadn't really been able to make many friends, so he'd had no use for it.

"Oh, hey Ryou! What's up?" Yugi replied cheerfully, and Ryou smiled. It was nice to be around someone who never seemed to be upset.

"Oh, nothing really, I was just wondering... did we have any English homework from Ms Maruyama today?"

He heard nothing on the end of the phone for a few moments.

"No..." Yugi said. "I don't think so. I would have written it down. Hang on, I'll just go check my diary."

Ryou waited as he heard the sounds of a bag unzipping and the rifling of papers.

Yugi got back on the phone. "Nope." Yugi said, confirming Ryou's hopes. "No homework for today. It's pretty unusual though, she usually gives us really heavy analyses."

"Oh right." Ryou said, looking into the open door of his bedroom and seeing the _My Last Duchess_ poem lying on the floor. He wasn't particularly looking forward to doing an analysis of that poem.

"Er, right... well thanks Yugi!" He said, a bit happier now knowing that his evening wasn't closed up to doing a heavy English homework.

"Thanks for telling me! See you tomorrow in school."

"No problem!" Yugi replied. "Yeah, see you tomorrow... Bye Ryou!"

"Bye!" Ryou responded, before pressing the End Call button and placing it back on the charger. He looked back at the Microwave.

Sure enough, the eggs had stopped cooking and Ryou got up off the sofa to take the bowl out of the microwave.

He pressed the button near the bottom and the door swung open. Ryou reached in to take hold of the bowl, before quickly withdrawing.

"OUCH!" He shouted, waving his hands in the air and blowing on them.

"Jeez..." He muttered, going over to the sink and putting his hands under the cold water tap.

"Memo to self. Use Oven Gloves."

He picked the aforementioned oven gloves up from the counter and slipped them on his still sore hands, before he got the bowl and set it down on the counter. It was steaming.

Ryou looked at it. He could leave it for a couple of moments while he put the toast on. He opened the breadbin and took the bread out, opening the wrapping at the stop and taking out two slices. He switched on the toaster, put the bread in the two slots and pushed the slider down, before returning to the glass bowl.

He took a fork from the draw and proceeded to mash up the now semi-solid mixture into definable scrambled eggs. Once the contents were suitably 'scrambled', he took a plate from the cupboard next to the food cupboard and scraped the egg onto it, making sure that none of it spilt onto the floor. He hated cleaning up.

He didn't have any ketchup in the house, so he guessed he was to have it plain. The eggs were now scorching hot due to all the hot air being released, so he decided it would be OK for him to wait for the toast. It was in no danger of becoming cold.

He contemplated the school day ahead of him the next day. He wondered if Bakura would look at him. Bakura... the gorgeous, elegant, ethereal Bakura...

"No! Shut up, brain!"

Ryou muttered this to himself as he fought mentally to get the handsome student out of his head once again.

He sighed. He was having to do that a lot lately. No one had ever had that much of an effect on him, and he'd never even spoken to him! He'd never have thought that looks could have played this much a role in attraction.

He was distracted by the sound of the toast popping up, and went over to take the slices out and drop them onto the same plate as the scrambled egg. He switched the toaster off, before cutting each square of bread into two slices and piling mounds of egg on each.

He went with the plate over to the sofa, grabbing the TV remote from the coffee table and switching it on. As soon as the Sky had loaded, he flicked onto the Sci-Fi Channel. Star Trek: The Next Generation was on. His favourite program. He smiled, taking a bite of the egg and toast. He had just managed to catch the opening credits.

He pressed the Information button on the Sky remote. He read the description of the episode, grinning when he realized that it was one he hadn't seen before.

Ryou liked all of the Star Trek franchise. Voyager, The Next Generation, The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, even the Animated Series. He had taken part in forum arguments over who was the best Captain, Kirk or Picard. He continuously argued Picard, his backup point being that he was the first Captain under Starfleet to allow a Klingon to become part of the crew. Ryou smiled slightly at the memories. Although good, they had invariably been part of his lack of friends. People had seen him as strange, odd, a big geek. But now he had friends, he thought to himself, and they didn't think him a freak at all.

About halfway through the episode, the phone started to ring. Having not set his Caller ID yet to recognize the numbers, Ryou was forced to answer it. It may be important. He kept his eyes trained on the screen as he responded.

"Hello?"

"Ryou!! It's me!!!"

Ryou blinked in surprise. Was he supposed to recognize this voice?

"Um... who is this?"

"Ryou I'm hurt! It's me, Malik, calling you to warm up your lonely Monday evening. REJOICE!"

Ryou chuckled slightly.

"Oh," he replied, more relaxed now than before.

"Hey, Malik. What's up?"

"Just wanted to see how things were going."

Ryou was taken aback... that and slightly frustrated. He didn't see the point in it. Then he slapped himself mentally for thinking so selfishly. Malik was his friend, he WAS ALLOWED to call him.

After hearing the silence on the other end, Malik laughed loudly.

"PSYCHE! As if I'd be that pathetic. No, actually, I was calling to see if you wanted to come down to Darkwave this Friday. Everyone's going... except Tea... I mean just because of Joey and all..."

Ryou thought about it for a moment.

"Erm... what's Darkwave?"

"It's a really cool club on the edge of town. Not your normal type though... are you up for it?"

"Um...I'm not sure... what's it like?"

"It's AWESOME," Malik replied, stunting Ryou a little. "You get to find out for yourself if you allow us to pick you up on Friday at nine."

"Er... I don't know..." Ryou started.

"Aw come on Ryou! PLEEEAAAAAASE!!!" Malik crooned on the end of the line. Ryou sighed.

"Malik, I –"

"PRETTY PRETTY PLEEEEEEASE?" Malik continued, and Ryou blushed. He wasn't used to having someone like Malik beg him for something. He rubbed one side of his face in his right hand.

"...Alright, as long as it's not –"

"GREAT!" Malik cried, cutting Ryou off in the middle of his sentence. "I'll pick you up on Friday at nine then."

"Wait, MALIK! –"

"This is going to be awesome. See you tomorrow!"

"WAIT!, I –"

Malik had already hung up. Ryou set the phone in the charger, burying his face in his hands. What had he just gotten himself into? Not only that, but he'd missed about ten minutes of his favourite show. He cursed lightly to himself.

For the remainder of the show, he watched intently, trying to figure out what he'd missed, but to no avail. The show's end credits rolled and Ryou's head flopped back onto the sofa. He realised how tired he was.

He sat up and looked at his plate. It still had one slice of toast with egg on it. He grabbed it and ate it quickly, before going over to the TV and shutting it off. He went to the living room windows and closed the curtains. He switched on the mini kitchen-light He took his plate over to the kitchen sink and washed it. It was easy to wash – at least – he was too tired to stay up scrubbing food stains off plates and the like, and set it on the metal dryer to dry overnight.

He switched off the light in the kitchen as well as the one in the living room, and went into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. He glanced at his alarm clock. 9.10.

"Wow..." He muttered to himself. He didn't realise that the time had passed by so slowly. He switched the light on.

He shoved his bag over to the side of the floor with his foot, before stripping all but his boxer shorts off and padding over the wardrobe to get his pyjamas. His father had teased him before about the wearing of pyjamas, especially in the summer, but Ryou didn't feel very comfortable sleeping with his chest or any other part of him exposed. It made him feel vulnerable.

He shoved the grey baggy sleep pants and baggy white shirt on, and wandered over to the window. It was still a very hot night, but he closed the curtains anyway. He then went back over to the light switch, flicked it off, and walked over to his bed and climbed in, leaning out of the covers slightly to set his alarm for seven o'clock.

After having done so, he snuggled down under the comfy white duvet, and turned to look through the curtains. He could see the thin light of the moon shafting into a patch on his floor, and he smiled. He'd always loved moonlight. It was so peaceful and gentle, unlike the harsh, synthetic light from the streetlamps, but they'd all been switched off. He liked that aspect of Domino. No light pollution. In the last city, the lights were never off, and he was never able to see the moonlight properly.

He gazed at the silvery beauty in awe. He loved to sit and gaze at the moon sometimes. It made him think of somewhere else. It relaxed him. It was like being in a state of deep meditation for him, where nothing could disturb him.

Suddenly, before he could think much else, an overwhelming wave of sleepiness engulfed him. He snuggled down deeper into the covers and fluttered his eyes closed.

"G'night Moon..." he whispered, half yawning as he did. "G'night... pretty, pretty Moon..."

_Beepity Beep. Beepity Beep. Beepity Beep, Beepity Beep..._

Ryou turned over in his bed. He could hear something hazy getting through to him in his dreamlike state. It was quite annoying, he registered absentmindedly. Perhaps if he went back to dormancy, it would go away.

_Beepity Beep. Beepity Beep. Beepity Beep, Beepity Beep..._

Ryou could still hear it. He turned over again in the bed. 'What is that?' His thoughts seemed to float around inside his head, like patterns. Like he had spoken them aloud. 'Stop making that annoying noise...' he thought again to himself, turning his head to the side slightly.

_Beep. Beep. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP._

Ryou's eyes shot open. His head turned to his alarm clock. He growled angrily at it and swatted at it, knocking it over on its side on the table, but it didn't stop the insanely loud beeping. He put his hands over his ears, trying to shrink under the covers.

'I'm too tired...' He thought to himself. This time the thoughts felt normal, like actual thoughts, as they should be.

"Go away..." he muttered pulling the duvet right over his head. He wanted to go back to sleep. Perhaps if he threw the alarm clock out the window... No. Far too stupid, he thought to himself. I'd just have to buy a new one.

After a few minutes of this charade, Ryou sighed. He poked his head out of the covers and grabbed the alarm clock, turning it to face him to get a look at the time. 7.05 in the morning.

"Awww..." He groaned. He felt like he'd barely had any sleep at all, and he'd gone to bed pretty early. He sat up reluctantly and stretched, his back popping slightly. He let out a wide, catlike yawn, before throwing off the covers and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. The carpet was warm. He looked out of the window and grinned.

"At least something good will come out of today..." He smiled to himself. The sun was shining brightly through the light white fabric of the curtains, lighting up the entire room. He didn't go immediately to open them – for fear of blinding himself – instead he padded tiredly over to the wardrobe and threw the doors open, picking out various items of his uniform and throwing them all on his bed. After managing to get all of his uniform laid out, he went over and opened the door to the ensuite bathroom, closing it behind him again.

It was early in the morning, and the water timer was set to seven each morning, so the water would be nice and hot for him to have his shower.

The bathroom was nice enough. It too was cream, with a fairly modern shower, a toilet and a sink. It had light blue carpeting, and a mirror above the sink. Next to the sink was a small, three-tiered silver storage rack with wheels on. It housed various shampoos, Ryou's deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste and shaving equipment. Ryou flushed at the shaver and cream. Like his father, at seventeen, he was a typical late bloomer. He didn't exactly need it yet.

He grabbed a comb from the silver rack and combed through his long mane of white hair, getting all the tangles out before he washed it. He hated leaving his hair to dry with tangles, it hurt like hell trying to get them out dry.

After he'd straightened and smoothed out all the knots and tangles from his hair, he set the comb down and stripped off, stepping into the shower and sliding the door of it shut. He turned round and turned the dial to medium heat, stepping under the shower head and feeling the warm water start to fall over his body.

He relished the heat. He moved his head in and out of the water, so as to get it thoroughly wet and easy to lather in the shampoo. He liked the water running down his body, it warmed him up. He lifted his now soaking mane of hair up so the water could get to his neck.

After spending about five minutes enjoying the warm cascade of the water, he stepped out, taking the shampoo from the min-shelf inside the shower and squeezing a giant glob onto his hair, making sure to work it through his roots and down to the tips of where his hair ended, about halfway down his upper back. He spent a long time doing this, as he usually did, due to the thickness of his hair.

When he was convinced that the shampoo was spread out through his hair evenly, he stepped back under the shower head, letting the water rinse the soap and grease out of his hair. While this was happening, he grabbed the shower scrub from the shelf and squeezed some of the body wash onto it, proceeding to soap his body up, making sure he was nice and clean for the day ahead. He didn't want to be any more sweaty than was necessary.

After the water had rinsed off the orange-scented body wash, Ryou lifted a hand to rub down his scalp. It squeaked – a good sign, meaning that it was well and truly clean – and turned round to turn the dial to switch off the stream of water. He slid open the door of the shower, and stepped onto the carpet, shaking his hair out over it and grabbing a white towel to slip around his shoulders, keeping his wet hair off his back. He got the other similarly-coloured towel and wrapped it around his hips, tying it in a knot at the side. He grabbed the comb from where he'd left it on the sink and brushed through his hair again, making sure that his hair hadn't become knotted during the lathering off it in the shower.

After this process had been done, he grabbed the deodorant, opened the door and padded back into his bedroom. He released the towel from his hips and dried the rest of his body off, before spraying on the deodorant, putting on his underwear and then the rest of the uniform. Ryou thought about drying his hair, but then thought it would be easier and more time-saving to just let it dry in the summer sun.

When he was ready, he went into the living room and looked at the clock on the wall. 7.45. Ryou grinned. He had plenty of time to have breakfast and leave. Being a new student, he'd only be getting the rest of his books today, so packing his schoolbag wasn't a worry for him.

He went over to the kitchen and got the bread out of the cupboard. There were a couple of slices left, so he figured to use two of them for toast. He recalled that he didn't have any butter left, so he'd just have them plain with a glass of milk. He took out the two slices and popped them into the toaster, sliding down the lever and taking the carton of milk from the fridge. He opened one of the cupboards and took out a glass, pouring the ice cold milk into it and gulping some of it down. It tasted nice in his throat, it was good to remove some of the sourness from being asleep for all those hours.

As soon as the toast popped up, Ryou took them and ate them from his hands. There was no point in using a plate. He thought silently to himself as he ate. What would school be like today? What classes would he be in? And, finally, most interesting to him, would he see that small group of students again in their black Ferrari. A part of him didn't want to see them, but the bigger part of him just couldn't help it. They were so eerily perfect, so unlike the standard Human.

He turned this theory over in his mind as he finished off the first slice of toast, washing it down with another few glugs of milk from the glass.

He began to wonder who they were. They seemed beautiful enough to be interesting. Ryou scolded himself in the back of his mind for placing so much emphasis on their exterior features, but who, after seeing such beautiful creatures, wouldn't think the same?

Hungrily, he chewed the last slice of toast rapidly, faster than he should have. He managed to get the large lumps of toast mush down his throat, but his chest ached for about a minute afterwards. After the toast had passed safely through his system, Ryou went back into the bathroom through the bedroom to brush his teeth.

Ryou looked himself over in the mirror. Fine, just like every other day.

He grabbed the toothbrush from the small metal jar along with the toothpaste and squeezed the contents from it onto the brush, raising it to his mouth and proceeding to clean. Ryou winced a little as he realized how strong the mint from the toothpaste actually was, and regretted putting so much on the brush.

After brushing vigorously for about three or four minutes (Ryou hated having unclean teeth) he spat the eye-watering mixture out, cleansing his brush and rinsing his mouth out with water, rubbing his mouth on a towel. He looked around for a bottle of mouthwash. None. He added the item to the mental shopping list he'd started to compile the last evening.

After looking back in the mirror to check there weren't any white bits of crusted toothpaste on the corners of his mouth, Ryou deemed himself fit to go out of the flat. He grabbed his schoolbag from the floor as he walked out of the bathroom, through his bedroom and back into the living room. He fastened the watch he had laid out on the coffee table onto his wrist, and headed out the apartment door, locking it safely behind him.

"Argh! Where. Is. Ryou. That. Damn. Unpunctual. Scruff."

Yugi sighed as he watched Malik twiddle his thumbs impatiently as he sat at his desk, constantly looking towards the Homeroom door.

"Malik, Ryou's not being unpunctual, we were just early."

Malik glared over his right shoulder at Yugi.

"Well, I want to talk to him about something."

"About what?" Yugi inquired, raising one eyebrow at his sandy-haired friend.

"I invited him to Darkwave with us. I wanted to know what he was planning on wearing."

Yugi's face dropped as he heard what his friend had just told him.

"You invited Ryou to Darkwave."

Malik stared blankly at his friend. "Yes. Why, is that an issue?"

Yugi just shook his head in disbelief. "He's going to faint if you actually manage to get him in there."

Malik grinned. "Aw come on, it's not that bad."

Yugi raised both eyebrows. "Honestly, Malik, I wouldn't have put Ryou down for a place like Darkwave. I'm guessing you skimmed over the finer details."

Malik blushed. "Well.. just a little bit..."

Yugi's face turned completely apathetic. "You didn't tell him any details at all, did you."

Malik grinned shyly. "Well.. technically no... but –"

"Baka." Yugi muttered, rolling his eyes at Malik, who just grinned roguishly and looked at the clock on the wall. He groaned in annoyance.

"It's 8.20, where is he?!!" He moaned, his eyebrows twitching. He heard Yugi sigh louder behind him.

"You know, Malik, patience is a virtue."

Malik frowned. "Since when did you become my guide on all things moral?"

Yugi hmphed in frustration.

"Since you were born. You know, with no conscience. The little voice inside you that tells you not to do stupid things? Yeah, you must have been in the toilet when they were handing those out."

Malik was about to turn around and throw something at Yugi, when he heard the homeroom door open. It was Ryou.

"RYOU!!" Malik cried, leaping up from his seat and jumping on Ryou, lifting him up and spinning him around in the air.

Yugi stared at his friend in complete wonder. Then he looked at Ryou's face. He looked shocked, like a fish that had just been chucked into the ocean.

"Er... nice to see you too, Malik." Ryou replied to his friend's speechless greeting. Malik set him back down on the floor, and he blinked, trying to get his focus back. Yugi waved him over to a seat.

"Don't worry about that. Malik greets most of us with giant bear-hugs, you eventually learn how not to breathe during."

"Hey, I heard that!" Malik cried and pouted, coming over to sit in the desk next to Ryou's, placing Ryou in the centre of Yugi and Malik.

More of the students had started to pile into the classroom now, as the 8.30 morning bell signalled the arrival of registration. Ryou appeared to have made it just in time.

The students were all chatting amongst themselves, when the teacher entered. He was a small, thin man, with glasses and black hair down to the nape of his neck. He didn't appear to take much notice of the class in front of him, however, everyone quietened down as he sat down at his desk.

Yugi leaned over to Ryou. "That's Mr Higurashi," he whispered in Ryou's ear. "He's nothing to be scared of, don't worry. He's probably about the nicest teacher in the school."

Ryou smiled and looked at the teacher, who was now beaming at everyone in the class.

"Good morning, students." Mr Higurashi said calmly, before opening the blue register book that had been sat on his desk.

"Good morning Sensei." The class responded politely. Ryou was surprised. He'd never known a class to be quiet without having to be told to be so.

He listened out for his name as the teacher began to call out the list of names. Yugi's was called out, then Malik's, and then a name that no one answered to, and Ryou realized that his name must have been added to the very end. He was right when the teacher stopped abruptly.

"Ah, a new student." He said as calmly as before, finding Ryou immediately.

"Are you Ryou Bakura?" He asked gently, and Ryou found himself responding immediately with a yes. The teacher didn't seem to want to embarrass him, and he just marked him down as present, before dismissing the entire class.

Yugi grinned as everyone picked up their bags to go to the next class. "See? He's nice, isn't he?"

Ryou smiled and agreed, waiting for Malik and Yugi so they could walk through the corridors together.

They had reached the doorway, when they heard a commotion outside in the hallway. Ryou stood puzzled for a moment, listening as what appeared to be scuffling got louder and louder, and closer to where Ryou was standing at the entrance to the classroom.

Before he could move, however, he felt himself fly into the edge of the doorframe, and fall to the floor. The blow had been so quick he hadn't even seen it coming. His eyes struggled to focus for a moment, before realizing that someone's shadow had appeared over him. He couldn't hear Yugi or Malik. He looked over at them. They were staring at the form of the person above Ryou.

Ryou looked up, and froze in fear. It was the boy who looked like Malik. Ryou gasped. His eyes were a deep purple, and he was scarily handsome. Not ethereal like Bakura. This one reminded him more of the deep earth, as his eyes drilled into his skull.

The corner of the student's mouth turned up into a sarcastic smirk. His voice was velveteen and smooth.

"Well, hello there."

**YAY, finally finished chapter 2!! Please R and R, I hope you enjoy it! **


	3. Scent

Disclaimer: No... I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Same as I didn't last time, and the time before that. However unfortunately.

"**Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately;**

**When lawful, they do not excite desire."**

_- Marcus Fabius Quintilian _

Chapter 3: Scent

"Ryou... Ryou... Ryou? Ryou come on, we know you're in here. Come out of there. Please?"

Malik's voice went unanswered. He crouched slightly as he paced the length of the boys' bathroom, trying to get a peek into the cubicles through the narrow gaps between the doors and the floor. Nothing. He cursed under his breath. A tired sigh sounded into the otherwise empty bathroom, and Malik whipped his head around at Joey, who was leaning against one of the sinks, his head back, hands in his pockets.

"Will you shut up?' He snapped in a half-whisper, narrowing his eyes to glare at the blonde boy. 'You're not helping."

Joey looked down at the white floor and rubbed his face in his hands, not bothering to look at Malik.

"Look man, he's not coming out. He doesn't want to come out. Why are we wasting our time here? Let's just leave him and go eat, I'm STARVING already."

Malik stared at him, not even trying to comprehend the answer he'd just been given.

"Is that ALL you think about? FOOD?" Malik retaliated, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Ryou's so shaken that he's gone and locked himself in the boys' toilets, and the only thing you can think about is your own STOMACH?" He said again, disgusted with his friend's behaviour.

"Well he's not going to come out if he doesn't want to!" Joey replied, getting exasperated with Malik.

"I don't see why that has to stop me from ingesting anything at this current moment!"

Malik just groaned in disgust and resumed trying to look for Ryou's sneakers under the cubicle doors. The rest of his friends sat aimlessly located around the bathroom; Tristan sitting on the floor, Duke chucking a dice up in the air and catching it over and over again, and Yugi sitting on one of the sinks, watching Malik as he paced back and forth, back and forth, again and again and again.

"Ryou, come on! There's nothing to be scared of, everyone's here waiting for you! Except you can ignore Joey, he's just being an ass.'"

"I'M NOT BEING AN ASS!"

"Shut up blondie," Malik retorted, bending down even further, still to no avail.

"Come on Ryou, we just want to know you're OK. We're not leaving until you come out of that cubicle."

Joey groaned even louder, but was staunchly ignored.

Next to him, Yugi sighed and hopped off the sink he was sitting on. Joey looked hopefully at him.

"Oh THANKYOU, SOMEONE, are you going to the canteen too?" He said, grinning wildly at his friend.

Yugi rolled his eyes. "No, I'm going to talk to Ryou. You and Malik aren't doing a very good job."

Joey's expression hardened. "Well whatever you guys. You can sit here and wait for him to come out, but I sure as hell am not gonna' starve myself. See you later, losers."

He shoved himself off the white-tiled walls and strode defiantly towards the door.

Yugi whipped around suddenly, his eyes and face a picture of hurt; so different from the look of quiet apathy he had been wearing before.

"Joey, wait!" Yugi's demeanour changed from casual sarcasm to genuine shock.

"Yeah, don't be such a jackass." Duke rallied, glaring at the blonde boy from where he was leaning on the wall.

"Look, I told you, I'm NOT staying. Ryou's a nice guy and all, but we can talk to him LATER. Quit pulling on your imaginary heartstrings." Joey snapped, glaring harshly at Duke.

Yugi looked hurt. "That's not fair, Ryou doesn't even know you and he'd probably stay, just because that's the kind of person he is." He stood and stared at Joey, asking him silently to stay.

Joey just rolled his eyes and turned towards the direction of the door. He marched vehemently towards it before stopping suddenly. Tristan was leaning against it.

'Get the hell outta my way, Elvis,' he spat, sounding annoyed. Tristan didn't respond.

'HEY, JACKASS, I SAID GET THE HELL OUTTA M – " His rant ended abruptly.

Malik, Yugi and Duke stared in shock as they watched Tristan's foot slam up into the centre of Joey's crotch. Joey's breath was knocked out of him, his face turning a curious shade of red and purple, as he fell to the floor, clutching the area in between his legs. He tried to say something, but nothing managed to escape apart from a few strangled-sounding gasps.

Tristan looked down at his friend in mild disdain. "You ain't goin' anywhere," he drawled, as his friend rolled around on the floor, in obvious pain.

Yugi stared at his other friend.

"I... I... TRISTAN!!!" He spluttered, staring down in utter abhorrence at the crumpled figure at his feet.

Tristan looked sceptically up at Yugi, one of his eyebrows raised in cool nonchalance.

"Well none of you did anything to stop him. He only responds to violence, don't you know, it's the only language that registers."

His response was dictated lightly and pleasantly, almost as if he hadn't just made his best friend temporarily infertile. He smiled and patted Joey's blonde head with a knuckled hand, as if to reinforce what he'd said. Amazingly, Joey allowed it, in too much pain to do anything about it.

Duke just burst out laughing, a loud cackle that echoed and bounced off the bathroom walls. Malik didn't say anything, just stared at Yugi, who was staring at Joey still, wincing his eyes every time his friend uttered a new sound of pain.

"HAHAHAHA, you absolute fruitcake!" Duke gasped between laughter, his entire form shaking with it as he pointed at Joey.

Yugi glared at Duke, annoyed.

"You shouldn't laugh at other peoples' misfortunes." He said, slightly angry with his friend for being so blasé.

Duke didn't say anything back; he just carried on laughing until tears formed in his green eyes. Yugi emitted a loud 'HARUMPH' and folded his arms, pouting, refusing to look at his friend.

For a precious moment, they were all too distracted to notice the small click of a latch unlocking, and the slight creak of an opening door as Ryou stepped out meekly, looking cautiously over at the huddled group. He gasped in shock when he saw Joey's huddled form on the ground groaning. The gasp was enough noise to alert one member of the group to his presence.

Malik snapped his head around, and instantly started beaming as he saw the white-haired boy.

"RYOU!!!!!!!" Malik cried, striding over to Ryou and capturing him in a big hug.

"I MISSED YOU!!"

Ryou's eyes almost bulged out of his head with the ferocity of his friend's hug. Yugi looked over his shoulder at Malik and rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath. Duke followed his gaze and smirked, chuckling.

Ryou blushed as he got what Duke was thinking.

He tried tapping lightly against Malik's chest, but the other boy didn't seem to notice, as his arms were still locked tightly around Ryou's frail form. Ryou had guessed that he was strong, but not _that _strong. The hug was positively bone-crushing.

"Um... Malik-kun – "

"Just call me Malik," the boy said softly, sighing dreamily. Ryou blushed even heavier.

"Er... Malik... not to be rude or anything... but... erm... well, if you could – "

"Your hair smells REEELY nice today." Malik interrupted, moving his head closer to the soft white hair on Ryou's head.

Ryou's head almost exploded with embarrassment.

"Er... hm.... thanks," he said uncertainly, still not quite able to breathe properly. He figured out quietly that Malik would probably put him down when he was done with hugging him. He felt a pair of eyes on him, and looked up to see Duke raising his eyebrows again and again at him, a mischievous glint in his eye. Ryou felt his face turn entirely red, and looked down, only to be confronted with the sight of Malik's tanned, toned upper arm.

'He has really nice arms...' Ryou thought to himself, as he gazed at the muscular lines that lay beneath the supple golden skin... then he blinked.

Did he really just think that?

He gulped as he felt his body temperature rise despite his wishes for it not to, and began pushing against Malik harder, hoping he could get away from him before anything untoward happened. Also, he really needed to take a couple of deep breaths, his chest was beginning to get sore.

When Malik felt Ryou protesting against his hold on him, he looked down worriedly and stepped away from the smaller boy, slightly disturbed as Ryou stumbled quickly back towards Yugi, bright red and looking embarrassed.

He frowned slightly. He'd liked holding onto Ryou.

"What's wrong?" He asked, letting a tinge of worry lace his voice.

Ryou began to look even more flustered.

"Ahhh... it's erm... it's nothing, you were just... I mean I wanted to, erm, you know, well – "

"You were crushing him in a deathlock, genius." Duke answered for him, casting a wry glance over at Malik, who just looked puzzled, looking quizzically at Duke.

"You don't like my hugs?" Malik pondered aloud, pouting slightly over at the white-haired boy.

Ryou's brown eyes got even bigger, and the blush he'd been wearing travelled down to his neck.

"No, I MEAN YES!! No, I mean, that's not what I meant, why wouldn't I like your hugs?! There's nothing to dislike is there, you give very nice hugs, not that I'm obsessed with you or anything because I'm not I'm just saying – "

"!"

Ryou almost jumped out of his skin as the loud, brash yell erupted and echoed around the bathroom.

He turned his head towards the source of the noise. Joey had apparently recovered enough to launch himself on Tristan, and the pair were now rolling around on the bathroom floor, cursing and hurling punches at each other's faces.

"ME? I'M THE BASTARD. YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WANTED TO LEAVE RYOU FOR SOME FUCKING FOOD, YOU INSENSITIVE BUFFOON."

"YOU KICKED ME IN THE BALLS!!!"

There was a loud smack as Joey followed his response by sending his fist careering into Tristan's nose, forcing Tristan to howl in pain.

"FUCK! I HEARD A CRACK! YOU'VE BROKEN MY NOSE! YOU BROKE MY NOSE YOU FUCKING DOG!"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE YOU KICKED ME IN THE GONADS!!!" Joey yelled back, raising his fist to pound it down on Tristan's jaw. Another sickening WHACK sounded.

"JESUS! QUIT PUNCHING ME!"

"WHY DON'T YOU FIGHT BACK INSTEAD OF LYING THERE, COWERING LIKE A LITTLE GIRL!"

"OH, SO YOU THINK I'M A GIRL, HUH, A LITTLE GIRL?"

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I THINK, YOU OVERRATED SON OF A – "

Tristan reached up and punched Joey square in the face, knocking the blonde off of him and back onto the floor near Ryou's feet, who looked down at the blood oozing from Joey's nose in horror.

Tristan made to launch himself onto Joey, but was caught mid jump by Malik, who attempted to restrain him as he tried to pin the brunette's arms in a lock. The others caught the gist and Yugi and Duke leapt on top of Joey, keeping him down on the floor with both their masses weighing down on him.

"GET THE HELL OFFA ME, I NEEDA TEACH THAT DUMB FUCK A LESSON!" Joey roared, trying in vain to throw the two boys off of him, but failing miserably. Tristan was also kicking and yelling unintelligibly at Joey, but Malik had him in an impenetrable lock, and he was't getting out.

"LET ME AT HIM!"

"FUCK YOU ELVIS!"

"GO AND FUCKIN DIE MUTT!"

"STOP IT!!!"

The noise quietened down drastically as everyone turned to look at Ryou, whose eyes were screwed up, his hands over his ears.

Yugi looked at his friend, shocked at his outburst.

"JUST STOP IT! I HATE VIOLENCE! I HATE IT!" Ryou screamed.

There was a shocked silence from everybody. Malik looked at Ryou in panic, whose entire being was now shaking in an unnamed emotion. Tristan and Joey had stopped seething and kicking, and their eyes joined the set of worried stares that gazed upon their friend. None of them wanted to say anything – they didn't know what to say.

Duke looked worriedly over at Malik, who just looked frantically back. He didn't know what had come over the boy. He'd been fine before.

They remained like this for several unnoticed minutes, before Ryou finally stopped shaking and raised his eyes to look at them.

"I... I... I'm sorry...." He said to them all, and he sounded sincere. "I just... I just... I... I don't know what's wrong with me today..."

Malik shoved Tristan vehemently to the side and went immediately to Ryou's side.

"No, it's not you, it's not your fault. It's not a bad thing to dislike violence, they didn't really mean it."

At this point he looked over at Tristan and Joey, who were standing awkwardly, not looking at anyone.

"I said, _they didn't really mean it_."

Duke and Yugi whacked both boys on the shoulders simultaneously, and they jumped, grumbling to each other.

"What was that?" Duke said, smiling sweetly at Tristan.

"Yeah, we didn't quite hear you," Yugi said, looking innocently up at Joey.

The two boys scowled in unison.

"We didn't mean it"

"Yeah, we didn't, you know, mean it."

"Sorry."

"It's alright."

"JOEY!"

"Fine, I'm sorry too."

Ryou smiled a small smile.

"It's not that... it's just... you're my friends! I don't like seeing you hurt each other, it's not nice. You're supposed to be best friends!"

Both of them looked down at their shoes in shame. Malik noticed and nodded.

"Quite right too." He muttered, earning a glare from Tristan, but it was soon quashed by a quick glance at Ryou.

There was another awkward silence, as each one of them tried to figure out something to say.

Ryou cleared his throat. "Um... what time is it? I'm pretty sure I've made you all miss a couple of classes with my... antics."

Ryou looked ashamed and blushed as he remembered how stupid he must have looked when he fled to the boys' toilets. No credible reputation would boost him up any time soon.

Duke looked at his watch.

"It's eleven fifteen, the other classes will be halfway through Form Period by now... it's not much to miss. All we usually do is listen to seminars on The Dangers of Drugs and the Sex Talk. It's not cool."

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

A frown slowly began to twist itself on Ryou's face, and he looked slightly uncomfortable.

"But still... we should probably go back to class anyway... I don't want any of your teachers to get suspicious about something that I created."

No one knew what to say to that, so they all shrugged in mutual apathy, and turned towards the door. Joey exited rapidly, closely followed by Tristan. They didn't bother to clean up their injuries.

Malik chuckled at Ryou's worried expression.

"Don't worry, Ryou-kun. They're probably just feeling guilty about what happened earlier. Joey especially. They'll come round."

Ryou didn't match Malik's smile. In fact, he didn't even look back at him. Malik noticed, and stopped Ryou by his shoulder. He wanted to ask about the sudden outburst earlier. It was still playing on his mind, but he wasn't sure if he should bring it back up. He didn't want the atmosphere to become awkward. Instead, he reverted back to his usual questions.

"Ryou?"

The white-haired boy stopped, and looked at him from underneath long eyelashes. Malik gulped.

"Why did you run away from Marik in the first place? You know, he didn't do anything to you. You wouldn't have known about it if he was going to, though..."

Ryou's eyes creased as he remembered how it had felt to look into the student's eyes – the student who he now knew by Marik – how it had felt as the striking violet irises bore into him, making him feel as though he could see into his soul.

Ryou blinked and came back to reality, looking at Malik.

"Oh, erm... he just... he just scared me, is all." Ryou said uncomfortably. He didn't like admitting it, but at least it was true.

Malik laughed, feeling slightly easier for his troubles.

"I'll say!" He chuckled, and grinned at his friend, silently admiring the soft smile that adorned Ryou's face.

He abruptly changed the subject from his mind before he got any impure thoughts.

"Come on, let's go to Form Period. Nakamura-sama might be mad if we miss one of his precious Rubber-Giving-Out sessions."

Ryou looked blankly at him.

Malik grinned wickedly. "I'll explain on the way there."

Ryou had underestimated the size of the school.

The day before, they'd just all eaten outside because of the beauty and warmth of the day, but today was to be spent in the cafeteria. Joey wanted a hamburger.

Ryou flinched as the hordes of people thronged past him, pushing past him to get into the busy queue for the cooked dinners. Joey was no different, he'd bunked about twelve people already in his quest for his hamburger, and was getting no shortage of angry stares.

Ryou felt Malik's arm around his shoulders as he guided him quickly through the incredibly large cafeteria, steering him towards their usual table. He knew Mai had told him not to get too close to Malik yet, but he wasn't trying anything too forward

It would be the first time that Ryou had sat at the table, and, as pathetic as he felt for it, he was rather excited. This was the first time he had truly fit in anywhere, and it would be nice to be part of something for once in his life.

The cafeteria itself was enormous, even with plus 900 students inside it, it looked big. When Ryou walked in, the first thing he had noticed was that facing him was a wall that was mainly made out of glass in sections to make windows that looked out onto the pretty school grounds. The walls were a light cream colour, as was the floor and the ceiling, which only served to brighten up the room even more than it already was. The canteen was packed with square white tables, with sky blue tops and hard ordinary grey school chairs. The queue for the food extended from out of the door right up to the Serve-Out, and Ryou turned round to see Joey near the front, although he seemed to have disgruntled a good deal more students. The Serve-Out itself had a stack of trays near the beginning, and chrome trays where someone could ask for whatever they had on the menu that day, and the dinnerladies would slop it onto their tray.

Ryou looked forward again, and was surprised to see Yugi, Mai and another girl with short brown hair sitting at a table only a few yards in front of Malik and himself.

Yugi looked up from his packed lunch of a bagel and orange juice and grinned, waving at them to come and sit down at the table. As they walked forward, Malik leant down to whisper in Ryou's ear.

"That's Tea sitting next to Mai. I know you'd never say anything, but I'm just saying in case she annoys you. We may not like her _that _much, but we'd rather she had some friends than none."

"OK." Ryou whispered back out of the corner of his mouth. He couldn't help but notice Malik's extremely minty fresh breath.

'SHUT UP RYOU', He yelled inwardly to himself. He was annoyed at himself for becoming so idiotic around guys all of a sudden. It hadn't been like that in any of his other schools.

Malik went next to Yugi and pulled out a chair, signalling for Ryou to sit down. Ryou saw Mai raise her eyebrows in surprise, but neither of them said anything. He sat down next to his friend, and Malik took the seat next to Ryou. They were near the back of the hall, and from where Ryou was sitting, he was facing the entire canteen.

Mai and Tea were sitting in front of him, so he took this opportunity to study the girl that the others found so annoying. She was rather tall, and slender, but still curvy, somehow. She had pretty features; a small narrow nose, blue eyes, a nice smile. She looked altogether very normal. Very... standard. But then... like Malik had said... he hadn't heard her talk yet.

He was interrupted in this train of thought by Duke and Tristan setting their trays down on Tea's left side, chatting animatedly about a new game Duke was planning to invent. Ryou's ears pricked curiously – Duke had told him the day before that he was planning to become a games designer, and from what he had described, Ryou wouldn't mind playing it himself.

"Hey... where's Joey?"

Everyone stopped eating and chatting to turn and look at Tea. Malik glanced at her sideways. Ryou noted the way her voice sounded, soft, but not passive.

"What are you interested in Joey for. Last we heard you weren't exactly his biggest fan." Malik responded, taking a large bite from his chicken tikka masala sandwich.

Tea frowned. "No, I'm not, but I'm just wondering where he is... he's usually the first one into the canteen..."

Ryou caught a slight tinge of disdain behind her words, but he didn't entirely blame her for it. He would not have been so appreciative of the blonde boy either if he had dropped a frog's eyeball in _his _pocket.

"Joey," Tristan said, an icy edge coming into his voice, "is in the queue, getting his food. He'll be here in a minute." Ryou could sense the loyalty that Tristan held to Joey, which surprised him a little, given their not-so-friendly fight in the bathrooms earlier that day.

Tea's frown immediately melted into agreement.

"Oh right, yeah, totally, don't know how I didn't see him hahaha..." She replied, her voice trailing off and a light pink blush appearing on her cheeks as she gazed over at Tristan.

Duke snorted into the apple he had bitten into, and Tea glared at him, apparently not noticing the jolt he gave when Tristan kicked him sharply from under the table. Tristan just smiled innocently at Duke's angry stare. Ryou saw Yugi cast a nervous glance between the pair, and decided that since he and Yugi were the only males at the table not likely to get into a fight, he'd talk to him.

He'd just opened his mouth to speak, when a tray piled high with food slammed down on the table, and Joey slid into his seat, staring hungrily at the big mess of edibles in front of him.

Ryou noticed Malik watching in disgust as Joey took the big fat burger from the tray and bit into it, an audible squelch emitting from it from all the sauces and extras inside it.

"God," Tea interrupted again, looking Joey up and down with obvious disdain. "Could you be any more pig-like?"

Joey looked up and grinned, bits of meat showing through his teeth. Tea balked. Malik groaned in disgust and looked away, pushing his tray away from him.

"Question answered." Joey managed to say through a mouthful of chips and burger. Mai raised one of her eyebrows but carried on eating her ramen, used to the relationship between Joey and food.

"So, Ryou," Duke said suddenly to him, quitting the gaming conversation with Tristan.

"I hear you're coming to Darkwave with us on Friday. I wouldn't have put a guy like you in for a club like that."

Ryou looked up, in time to see Malik throw a deathly glare at Duke.

"What do you mean... a club like that....?" He replied cautiously, noticing still when Duke received the second kick from under the lunch table in ten minutes.

"He meant nothing, really, it's a lovely club, you'll really like it," Malik jumped in sweetly, too sweetly for Ryou's liking. He also saw Mai's expression turn from comical to apprehensive in a matter of seconds.

"Are you sure? I... I don't want to go anywhere... you know... dangerous..." He pressed on, trying to see if there was any change or expression of worry in Malik's eyes.

"Yeah, perfectly sure! I wouldn't take you anywhere dangerous, you know that," Malik grinned, winking at Ryou, who blushed and looked down at the table.

"Um... well... OK then... but who else is going?"

"Me, DEFINITELY," Duke cut in, his eyes sparkling.

"They have the best music in the world, and THE WOMEN"

"Duke! That's totally masochistic and degrading towards women!" Tea interrupted, glaring at him from where she'd been eating her small bowl of salad.

"And I don't think you should take Ryou there either! He seems really nice, and – OWW!"

Ryou's head snapped around in time to see Tea reaching down under the table to rub her ankle, but Malik was the picture of innocence, sitting quietly at his chair and taking a sip from his orange juice as if he had no idea what had happened. Ryou wondered what he was up to, and why some of the others had been rather... reluctant to have him go there.

For a couple of moments, there was nothing but the sound of eating and rustling food paper and cartons. Joey had finished his burger by now, and had moved on to eating the large slab of pizza that was draped over a rather suspicious looking hotdog. Ryou watched him as he ate. He wasn't quite sure how to act around Joey yet. Not only that, he wasn't sure if Joey liked him... what with the commotion before about him wanting to leave Ryou in the toilets. Or, maybe he'd just wanted to give Ryou some space to be alone. He didn't really know. He was caught off guard suddenly when he regained concentration and found Joey's light brown eyes watching him back, and quickly reverted his eyes to the table, finding a very interesting spot on the sky blue top to stare at.

With nothing else he really wanted to say, he found his thoughts returning to that morning, and the student known as Marik who'd looked at him so curiously. He felt a chill go down his spine as he remembered how piercing those violet eyes had been, how vulnerable it had made him feel. Perhaps it had been the strange, intense colour, matched with the sandy hair and darkly tanned skin, and the smirk he had worn on his face when he'd seen him, how it had made Ryou feel like he was caught in a spider's web.

And then he thought of Bakura again... the strange, mysterious, beautiful boy who, in truth, had not stopped appearing in Ryou's head since the first day he had set eyes on him, no matter how much Ryou tried to push him out. He didn't know why he kept appearing to him... constantly in his mind, in his dreams, in his every move. He shook his head and sighed, remembering what Malik had told him the day before.

'_Most of the kids in the school, male and female, have wanted them and do want them at some point. It's like they're immune to it_.'

"Hey, Ryou. Ryou?"

He was snapped out of his reverie by Yugi, who was staring at him with a concerned expression on his face.

"...You ok?"

Ryou blushed heavily and started stumbling around for an explanation.

"I... uh... well I was just.... thinking. You know... about stuff. Thinking about stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

Ryou blinked and began to stutter like a goldfish.

"Um... well... you know, like I said... stuff. Stuff about.... me."

Yugi looked at him quizzically, one eyebrow raised in misapprehension.

"O...k.... well it's two o'clock. We've got to go to class."

Ryou looked around the table and, to his surprise, everyone was already busy getting out of their chairs and shouldering their bags. He had been so busy thinking about Bakura that he hadn't noticed the time. He blushed.

"Oh right... sorry..." he muttered abashedly, as he too stood up from his seat and shifted his bag onto his shoulder.

Yugi glanced at him sideways. "Yeah, you were kind of in your own little world for a while there!" A small smile played on the corner of his lips.

Ryou smiled softly in response. 'Idiot.' He thought to himself, trying his best to look grounded enough for no one else to ask him what was up. He waved goodbye to Yugi and the others, but he noticed that Malik was still hanging around for him at the table. He blinked.

"Oh... hey Malik. There's probably no need to wait for me, I'm in double Maths, I don't think we're in the same class set."

Malik cocked his head to the side and frowned a little.

"Not in the same class set? What do you mean, aren't you in the elementary course?"

Ryou blushed and looked down at the tabletop.

"Erm... No... Actually I'm in advanced maths... I – "

"EUGH, say no more," Malik interrupted him, before breaking out into a big grin.

"You maths freaks make me go nuts, how any of you solve those nasty algebraic equations or whatever the hell you call them now, I don't know."

Ryou blinked and smiled dopily.

"Oh well it's quite simple actually, it's just a matter of expanding or moving numbers in a linear sequence – "

"AH BAH BAHHH!" Malik exclaimed loudly, putting his hand up to stop Ryou from saying anything further.

"NO MORE!!" He cried jokingly, laughing.

Ryou blushed and moved over to Malik's side. "OK... I won't tell you any more maths..." he laughed a bit, catching a nice glimpse of Malik's shiny white teeth when he smiled. "I guess I'll see you later..."

Malik suddenly stopped laughing and gazed at Ryou. "Sure..." he said, smiling softer than before, his eyes lidded over slightly. Ryou felt his heartbeat quicken.

"See you later," Malik replied, gently touching Ryou's arm and, before Ryou could see anything else, the tanned boy broke out into his previous mischievous grin and started his walk out of the canteen doors, waving back to Ryou as he walked. Ryou waved back hesitantly as he watched his friend leave him, slightly in a daze. Shaking his head slightly, he looked up at the clock on the far wall of the cafeteria. His eyes widened. He was five minutes late! How did that happen?

He whipped his head around the canteen. Only a couple of other students remained, and he blushed furiously.

'How could I have been so stupid?!' He thought to himself, as he began to walk briskly towards the cafeteria doors.

'I'm going to be in so much trouble!' He thought worriedly to himself, as he turned into the main corridor. A couple of students were still milling around at their lockers, but he wasn't so confident. He was new there, he didn't want to make a bad impression.

Passing quickly through the main foyer, he curved a corner that led up two adjoining flights of stairs to the top floor, which he recognised as the corridor that Malik had led him through to get to World Civ. He stopped for a brief moment as he pulled the crumpled timetable out of his blazer pocket.

"C118," he murmured to himself, glancing around the corridor. The sun was still streaming as brightly as ever through the large rectangular windows, and at any other time it would have served to relax him, but not that time. He looked up at the ceiling, and noticed the yellow signs hanging from it. He scanned along his direction.

"History, French, Spanish..."

He frowned, not finding his chosen subject anywhere along there. He turned around and looked in the opposite direction. He smiled in relief.

"Maths and IT."

There was only one singular sign hanging here, and he smiled wider as he realized that this whole section of the corridor must be devoted to the two subjects. At least it would be easy to find from now on, he thought to himself.

Still holding the creased piece of paper, he went quickly down the corridor, glancing left and right constantly, trying to find the door labelled "118." Usually, he would have taken in the work from the notice boards pinned next to various rooms, but this time he ignored him, anxious to waste as little time as possible.

When Ryou was about halfway down the corridor, he stopped. He'd found Room 118. It was in the centre of the corridor, and he could hear other lessons taking place from where he was standing. This door was a dark blue, and through the rectangular window on it, he could make out the teacher standing at the front of the classroom, explaining something to the class on the whiteboard, and he could hear their voice, too, penetrating through an unwelcoming silence. He gulped. He really _was _late.

He braced himself, and tapped shakily on the door, half willing the teacher not to hear it, so he wouldn't have to go in and face them. But the teacher did hear him, and a short "Come in" was echoed through the door. Ryou took a deep breath as he opened the door cautiously, stepping carefully into the classroom. The first thing he noticed, was that it was also bright yellow, like the signs on the ceiling. He looked up at the teacher. She didn't look particularly amused at being interrupted.

"And who might you be?" She asked, looking him dead in the eyes. His heart sped up.

"Erm... I... I... Ryou, sensei... I... I'm n... I'm new here..." He said, embarrassed at himself for sounding so strangled in front of everyone.

The teacher nodded slowly.

"Right... and do you think just because you're new you have reason to turn up late for my class?"

Several voices near the back of the class sniggered, but Ryou didn't turn to see whom they belonged to. He didn't think he could have moved at that point.

"Um... Er... N... No... I got... I got lost..." Ryou stuttered, his cheeks flaring when he heard the sniggering laughter again, looking down at the floor.

"That's not a valid reason, really. Well... this can be your first and last exception in my class."

Ryou looked up again. "Th.... thank you..." he stammered gratefully.

"You should be," the teacher said, and he looked down at the floor once more.

"This is a small class, so there should be a seat for you here easily," she continued, scanning around the classroom with hawk-like eyes. Ryou noticed when she settled on a target, but didn't look to follow her gaze.

"I prefer to have all of my students seated in pairs... that way, one of you will always have the correct materials. Not that you should ever forget of course." She glared at Ryou out of the corner of her eye, and he nodded quickly.

She looked satisfied by this gesture. "There's a seat for you over there, if you'll go and take it please." She said sternly. "I think we've had enough of the interruption for one day. As for your materials – " She paused to go into the store cupboard. Ryou waited for an uncomfortable couple of minutes before she emerged again with a fat maths textbook and two sky blue workbooks. She handed them to him without a word, and motioned in the direction of his seat.

Ryou blushed and looked towards where she motioned with her hand, and froze as he saw whom she had been motioning towards. The boy with the long white hair was sitting there, as perfect and still as a statue, looking straight ahead, barely even noticing Ryou. Despite this, Ryou still felt all the blood leave his brain and his heart speed up to an almost painfully fast level.

"Well?"

He snapped out of his stupor and looked apologetically at the teacher, taking a small, shaky step forward. He could feel the eyes of all the other students in the room on him, and was slightly grateful that the white-haired student's was not. That could have killed him.

He stepped gingerly over bags lying in his path, muttering almost inaudible apologies to anyone whose chair he slightly nudged, or whose bag he accidentally stepped on. When he finally made it to the desk, the student still didn't look at him, and he slid cautiously into the chair, immediately feeling pretentious at the closeness of them both. He shifted slightly to the side, away from the student, but he didn't react. Ryou's relief heightened, but not enough to calm him sufficiently.

It unnerved him to say the least, the way this student – Bakura, he remembered was his name – was so obviously uninterested in Ryou. He wished he had it in him to be offended, and not care, but something in him told him that he couldn't. Being only inches away from him... he could see his beauty in high definition. Ryou gazed at him out of the corner of his eye. The side he looked on was the side with the scar. It looked so strange on his pale, ghostly skin, but not strange at the same time. It was long and thin, and graced over part of his cheekbone. Ryou wondered what could have made it. He took this unnoticed opportunity to look over the rest of him.

Ryou's eyes traced over the student's alabaster cheek – the sharp edge of the well-defined cheekbone, and the shadowed hollow beneath it. The square line of his jaw and the slender line of his mouth, contrasted with the straight angularity of his nose. He was led up to his narrow eyes, eyes that now Ryou noticed, had more intensity to them than at first he had realized. A deep brown colour, slashed with green and flecked with gold, narrower than Ryou's own, and slender black eyelashes that stood out in stark contrast to his pale tone. Up to his hair, and the wild, casually ruffled white spikes that sat atop his head, running halfway down the top of his back. Down to his neckline, just as pale as the rest of him, the sharp, slender collarbone leading out and disappearing under his shirt. Where his shirt was rolled up, the subtly strong lines of muscle running up his forearm, leading to his broad shoulders. Down past his slim waist and hips, to his long, strong legs. Ryou marvelled at everything he saw. He was captivated, without an explanation as to how someone could be so painfully beautiful.

He was jerked sharply out of his reverie by a flying paper pellet hitting him on the head. His head snapped forward and, in an instant reaction, turned round to see who had thrown it at him. His eyes were greeted by the responding stares of a group sitting at the opposite back corner from him. Four boys and a girl, all of them laughing at their witty joke. He frowned slightly and looked down at the ground. All the same, it was probably better he had stopped looking... it would have been rather embarrassing to be caught staring as brazenly as he was.

He silently ignored the chuckles from the opposite corner and turned to open his maths book. The work on the whiteboard was Page 125, Straight Line Graphs. All Questions. At least that would be easy... he should get it finished in no time, he thought to himself.

'OK,' he thought. 'First question: If line AB lies at point (3, 3) (5,7) find the equation of the line.' Ryou breathed a sigh of relief. 'Simple. OK. Put y over x to find the gradient. 3 – 7 / 3 – 5 = -4 / -2 = 4 / 2 = 2. So now I have the gradient....' He was stumped as he got the first wave of scent coming from his left.

He felt his thoughts trail off and die. The student had shifted in his chair slightly, so now his body was angled more toward Ryou than ever, and whatever he had on had drifted over to him and he could smell his scent. He gulped. This wasn't good. How was he supposed to get his work finished now?

He tried taking a deep breath, but it wasn't working. Whenever he did that, more of the gorgeous aroma hit him, and he felt his head reel. Since when did his sense of smell come to have such a profound effect on him? He looked over at the student's work. His heart dropped slightly. He was near the last question, each one written out meticulously – and, Ryou checked, perfectly correct – in shamefully neat spidery italics down the page of his book. He hadn't even needed a calculator.

Ryou looked down at his own pathetic work, scrawled messily and angularly, not even past the first question. He sighed.

'I'm such a freak.' He thought to himself, and tried to bend his chest as close to the desk as possible, attempting to hide the furious blush that had now tainted his light complexion. He felt like hitting his head repeatedly off the desk. Or having the ground opening up and swallowing him whole. Anything was better than feeling like he did around the mysterious student.

He picked up his pen and skipped the next two questions, attempting to work on the fourth, but still to no avail. Sitting next to one person had shattered his concentration. Obliterated it. Under any normal circumstances, he would have had those questions finished in less than ten minutes. He looked at the clock. Fifteen whole minutes left. He groaned inwardly.

For the rest of the class, he just sat with his head down on the desk, trying desperately not to think of the person next to him, and look like he was actually doing some work. He had time to kill, and it didn't look like he'd be accomplishing anything useful in that time. When the bell rang, he was sure he had never been more relieved to get out of a class. He risked a glance sideways. Of course, the student was already standing up, zipping up his bag and getting ready to leave.

When Ryou had managed to fumble all of his things together, as ungracefully as anyone could possibly try, he threw the bag onto his shoulder and stood looking down at the floor.

"Alright, class, I expect you to have that work finished for me for Thursday. It's not difficult, I don't want any excuses, and no more lateness, from **any of you**."

Ryou heard the teacher, and looked up, only to be met with her burning gaze and looked straight back down again.

"Class dismissed!" She spoke, and that seemed to be the cue for everyone to rush out of their spaces and head towards the door all at the same time. Ryou deliberately took his time, hoping that he'd be the last one in the classroom, and not have to face anything else for the rest of the day. He hung back slowly as everyone hurried to filter out of the door. By the time the throng had gone, he began his walk to it, rather briskly for him. He wanted to get back to Yugi, to calm his shot nerves.

That was when he noticed that he wasn't the only person still in the room. Someone was standing behind him, and what was left of his heartbeat now threatened to explode. He turned round slowly, and was brought unexpectedly close to the student, who was standing behind him, holding out Ryou's eraser in the pale palm of his hand.

Ryou froze up.

"I... ah.... ah..." He stuttered out, instantly looking into the eyes of the student, then regretting it and looking down at his eraser.

"Tha... That's M... m.... mine..."

The student just looked at him.

"You left this at your desk," he replied. The sound of his voice sent sparks shooting up Ryou's spine. He could think of no other words to describe it than of velvet. It was soft and calm, yet unwavering and restful, just like those eyes. Ryou could feel the old blush creeping back over his face again.

"O... Oh. Oh erm... thank you..." He managed to stutter out,

The student continued to gaze at him calmly. After a couple of seconds, he raised one eyebrow ever so slightly, his eyes jerking minutely.

"You will take it?"

Ryou snapped out of his stupor, and his face doubled in shade of red.

"Oh! Erm.. I mean... thanks, I mean.... well... sorry... I mean, never mind...." He seemed to be tripping over his own tongue as he tried to control the violent trembling of his hand as he reached out to gingerly take the eraser, trying not to touch the student's skin, failing miserably. As soon as he even felt a brush of contact, a sharp jolt ran up his arm and down his spine, and he jerked his arm away, shoving the eraser in the pocket and standing awkwardly opposite the student.

For the brief second their skin did touch, he looked into the student's eyes, and was met with a look that matched, if not tripled, the intensity of his own stare. As soon as Ryou snatched his hand away, the student lowered his own, still gazing at Ryou, almost curiously.

For Ryou himself, the part of his hand that had touched the student's now felt like it was on fire, or had been electrocuted, or both. His eyes flicked back and forth between the student and his own hand, remembering the soft touch he had encountered.

"Goodbye."

Ryou was interrupted when he felt the scent-tinged air waft near as the student breezed past him, exiting as fluidly has he had probably come in. He was slightly shocked by the blunt exit, but then what had he expected. A hug, or a kiss?

'DON'T THINK OF THAT!' Ryou screamed to himself inside his head. He groaned out loud and turned around to rest his head on the filing cabinet, hitting it not too hard off of the metal sides. It was going to be a very long couple of hours.

YAY, NINETEEN WHOLE PAGES. You guys, I am so sorry it took me so long to update, I had all of my revision and then I got writers' block, I couldn't think of anything! I hope this chapter pleases you all, R&R! Also, I will update more regularly from now on, I promise xD


	4. Nerves

UPDATE, YEAH! So, it's been... well, AGES since my last update, but chapter 4 is now here! I really do hope you'll enjoy it and that it's as good as the other chapters!

**Disclaimer: No, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Why must I say this every chapter, it just depresses me... **

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of" Blaise Pascal

**Chapter 4: Nerves**

"Jeez... what a depressing poem."

Ryou looked up to see Yugi frowning at the anthology on his desk, the page flipped over to number six. Ryou blinked and glanced down at his own.

"Darkling Thrush?" He wondered, scanning over the lines.

"Yeah," Yugi replied, leaning back a little in his chair. "It's one of the most depressing poems I think I've ever read. Everything is so grey, and dull... I hate grey..."

Ryou smiled slightly as he read through it. Of course Yugi would hate grey, he himself being so bright and happy... it only made sense. He turned back to his friend.

"I don't think it's so bad," he said, giving a small smile. "It's a poem about weariness and the loss of a past. I think the writer feels some antipathy towards the industrialisation of Britain, and I guess they couldn't express that happily."

Yugi stared at Ryou. "O...K... you're going to be one of those people who does really well in this subject, I can tell." A big grin spread over his face and he giggled, and Ryou smiled back in return.

"Yes... I love English, it's my favourite subject. Don't you like it?"

Yugi smiled harder. "I like doing things like Creative Writing.... but I'm hopeless at trying to analyse stories and poetry... it boggles me!"

Ryou laughed slightly, staring down at the floor. He liked English periods with Yugi, even though this was only his second. They were always so... freeing. It was a single, and then all he had was World Civ. before he got out of school for another day. That, at least, made him slightly happier. He thought back to last period's mishap with the eraser, and blushed furiously.

'What a moron...' He thought to himself, cringing at the thought of what he must have looked like. He remembered how the pale student managed to exude such calm confidence, and him, stuttering and blundering like a fool.

He raised his eyes to look out of the window. It was still bright and sunny outside, which made him smile, even if just for a little bit. He thought about how much he loved the sun. It made the day seem so much better, even if it really wasn't. 'I wonder if Bakura likes the sun...' he mused absentmindedly. 'I don't know.'

"Do you always rub your hands together like that, Ryou?"

Ryou's head jerked up as his thoughts were interrupted, and he found Yugi staring at him.

"What? What do you mean?" He asked cautiously. He hadn't even realised he'd been doing it.

Yugi narrowed his eyes slightly. "You're worried about something. I can tell. You did it just before you met the guys, and you were doing it earlier at lunch. There's something on your mind."

Ryou's mind blanked for a second. Did Yugi have some kind of freaky ESP that no one had told him about? How did he even guess that? ... 'And how did I not realise I was rubbing my hands together...?' Ryou thought, glancing down at the once pale red patches on his hands.

He looked up again, only to be confronted with same pair of gentle, concerned amethyst eyes.

"Worried? Me? No, of course not... I mean, I've only been here for two days what on earth could I have to be worried about haha?" He gulped when he realised how rushed the last part had sounded.

Yugi raised his eyebrows in slight disbelief.

"I don't believe you."

Ryou's heartbeat tripled in a second. 'No! Give up, Give up!!!'

'Hahaha well you should because I'm definitely not worried about anything."

Yugi stared solidly at his white-haired friend for a moment, before seemingly appearing to relent. Ryou suppressed the urge to breathe out a huge sigh of relief.

"Alright then... but Ryou, if anything _is _worrying you, do you promise to come and talk to me about it?"

Ryou balked. 'No! Not ever! EVER EVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS!!!'

"Sure," he lied shakily, forcing a small smile to show on his lips. He felt awful for lying to Yugi, but there was no way he could tell him about the student... Bakura. It was just some stupid crush, and Yugi would just reiterate what Malik said... basically that he didn't have a shot in hell. He needed to sort himself out, by himself, with definitely no help from the others.

Yugi relaxed back into his previous self again.

"OK. Thanks, Ryou. I just want to make sure you're alright, you know?"

Ryou nodded and smiled gently, relieved that Yugi had dropped the subject. He wasn't very good at lying, and he knew he would have run out of excuses if Yugi had asked but a few more questions. He looked up at the clock on the opposite wall. Five minutes until World Civilisations. He smiled. That was Malik's class, and if anyone could make him forget about Bakura, it was Malik.

"Alright, class! We've about five minutes left of class, so if you'd all pack up before the bell goes?"

"Yes..."

Ryou chuckled at Yugi's hushed response. He glanced at him through the corner of his eye and Yugi was looking back at him with his trademark giggly smile. He picked his bag up from where it had been lying sprawled behind his chair, and slung it over his shoulder. He looked up at Miss Maruyama, who was now standing at the fore of the class, waiting for everyone to be quiet. Ryou quite liked her. She was firm, but she didn't have to be mean to prove it. He couldn't say the same for Chinen-sensei, his new maths teacher.

"OK class, in preparation for our upcoming coursework, I want a two page MINIMUM analysis of that poem for... Thursday. Thursday seems fair enough to me! Alright?"

"Yes sensei..." The class grumbled, waiting for the cue to be dismissed.

Miss Maruyama waited for a few moments, before hearing the bell ring out in the corridor. "Class dismissed!" She said loudly over the instant chat of the students in her classroom.

"Finally!" Yugi half-cried, stepping out of their desk boundaries and waiting for Ryou to follow suit.

"She always has to wait for the bell to actually ring to let us out!" He said, sighing in mock desperation.

Ryou chuckled at his friend's antics. "I thought you said you didn't mind English?"

Yugi smiled coyly. "No, what I said was I didn't mind creative writing. Seeing as we're not doing creative writing at the moment, I pretty much hate it." He grinned and Ryou did too, chuckling quietly at Yugi's expression.

"You're nuts..." Ryou replied, and laughed when Yugi poked him in the ribs.

"I am not nuts! I'm just... lively," Yugi replied with mock arrogance, throwing his arms out in a V around his head and doing a little spin on the spot. Ryou laughed and dodged out of his way, making Yugi laugh all the more. They chatted on until they reached the staircase that led up to Ryou's World Civ. Class.

"Oh, wait a minute, wait," Yugi said and Ryou paused, one foot on the first step of the stairs. Yugi had disappeared under the staircase. Ryou frowned and stepped down, peering around until he saw a small set of lockers nestled under the stairs. He hadn't noticed them before. Yugi heard him and turned round, grinning dopily.

"I know, right? Funny place to put some lockers, but what can you do... I'm the only one who can actually get in here without stooping!" He giggled and Ryou smiled, watching as Yugi finally succeeded in stuffing a fat textbook inside and forcing the door shut.

"Where's your locker?" Yugi called out, as he began slamming the door repeatedly in an effort to get it to stay closed.

Ryou thought about it. Come to think of it, he'd never been given one.

"Um... I don't have one..." He called back. The slamming continued four more times before it finally stopped, and Yugi reappeared.

"Sorry about that, it never closes right, and the caretaker won't fix it," he smiled. "Well, if you haven't got one, you can always share mine, I don't mind. I keep too much stuff in there anyway."

Ryou smiled. "That's a nice offer, but you have to use it for your stuff, I'd just be taking up important space..."

"I don't mind!" Yugi replied, grinning up at his friend. "Really, I don't have a padlock on mine, so if you ever need to use it, just come by here and put your stuff in it. All my things are named so they wouldn't get mixed up."

Ryou smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Yugi, I appreciate it."

"No problem," Yugi grinned. "Well, I'm in Art next with Duke... that should be eventful! I'll see you later!"

"See you later," Ryou responded as Yugi backed off and joined the other people who were going down the corridor.

He turned back onto the stairs and jogged lightly up them, coming out into the wide-windowed corridor again. The sun was so nice through these windows; it hadn't been like that in his old school. In his old school, the only view there had been to speak of was a dilapidated old university that dwarfed the small high school.

He had no need for his timetable this time. He smiled shyly to himself as he found he already remembered where to find his World Civilisations class. He looked along to it and noticed that there were pupils still entering the class, so he was good for time. He walked along to it and entered into the light blue room. He found Malik sitting waving at him from the back and hurried over, sliding into his corner seat and took his stuff out, arranging it neatly on his desk.

"Hey there," Malik smiled, his eyes twinkling. "You seem happier than you did at lunch." He grinned broadly and Ryou felt his heart skip a beat at his attentions.

"Oh... um well... yeah. Yugi cheered me up in English..."

Malik nodded in apprehension. "Yeah, Yugi's very good at that, he's helped me through a lot of things." He stopped short for a moment. "Are you still crushing on Bakura?" he asked bluntly.

Ryou felt his face go bright red and he somehow managed to choke on nothing, staring at Malik.

"I... I'm not crushing on him! I... I... what gave you that impression?!"

Malik laughed at Ryou's reaction. "Well, that reaction for one. And the fact you were thinking about him all through lunchtime."

Ryou's eyes bulged. "I... I... no, I wasn't, I wasn't thinking about him!"

Malik chuckled. "OK, OK, fine, if you say so... oh look, there he is now..."

Ryou coughed and began to splutter incomprehensibly at Malik. He looked up and saw Bakura enter fluidly into the classroom, and all the embarrassment and his own pounding heartbeat came flooding back to him. He'd completely forgotten that Bakura was in this class! Did fate like playing games with him?

Fortunately, apart from a quiet chuckle, Malik didn't have the time to say anything more, since at the precise moment the bell rang Shirakawa-sensei walked briskly into the room, kicking the door shut behind him and dumping a large box onto his already cluttered desk.

"Afternoon, class!"

"Hey... yeah.... afternoon..." the class mumbled a cacophony of different greetings before becoming instantly quiet again.

Mr Shirakawa went to stand at the front of the class, beaming around at them all. "Right, considering it's the last period of the day, I thought we'd have a little fun in learning today."

The class instantly became more interested, and Ryou glanced at Malik, who shrugged his shoulders. He'd never mentioned anything like this before.

"Yes," Mr Shirakawa confirmed. "I was in the store room today, and I came across this box over here," he gestured to the box that was stationary atop his table. "Now, before I tell you what is inside it, I want five volunteers to come up to the front of the class. Do we have any?"

Ryou almost had the shock of his life when beside him, Malik jumped out of his seat and called out, "ME!!"

The entire class laughed, except, Ryou noticed, Bakura, who looked like he was deep in thought. Ryou drooped slightly. Well it's not like he needed to be there, what with his intelligence.

"EXCELLENT!" Shirakawa-sensei cried, and beckoned Malik up to the front. "Malik-kun has taken the first step, would anyone care to join him?"

"Ryou does!"

Ryou looked up at his name being called, and almost died when he realised that Malik was still standing next to him, pointing at him.

"What?" He whispered, looking up at Malik. "No, Malik, I... no!" He said as quietly as he could, but it was too late, Malik dragged him up from his seat, so it looked like he was standing up.

"BRILLIANT! Three more!" Their teacher cried, looking around at the now very interested class.

"No... I, I didn't... I didn't volunteer..." Ryou tried to say, but his quiet protests were now drowned out by the loud shouts of the pupils in the class.

Malik turned round and smiled innocently at him. "Aw, come on Ryou! It'll be fun!"

"I... Malik! No... I, No!" Ryou squeaked, but Malik was already outside his desk and grabbed Ryou's hand. Ryou's heart jumped, but then he realised that Malik was just using it to pull Ryou up to the front.

'Oh no!!' Ryou cried in his mind as Malik pulled him to a halt beside him next to Mr Shirakawa. He saw Bakura gazing intently at the pair now, and his throat became as dry as sandpaper. He watched as a girl from the middle row jumped up, followed by another girl and then another boy. When they were all assembled at the front, Mr Shirakawa began to hush the class down.

"Alright! So now we have our five volunteers, are we ready to see what's inside the box?"

Malik cackled and Ryou became even more embarrassed, as the whole class yelled a loud 'YES!' in their direction.

Mr Shirakawa slowly unfolded the top of the cardboard box, until, with a flourish, he pulled out what looked to be an Egyptian headdress.

"Costumes!" He cried, and Malik laughed even harder.

"Excellent!" He laughed. "That's excellent!" Ryou felt his heartbeat pound in his ears. He didn't want to wear a weird costume in front of everyone!

"Now," Shirakawa-sensei said, turning round to the five at the front. "Who wants to be our Pharaoh?"

"Ah!" Malik cried, leaning out in front of all the other pupils. "Me!!" The class cheered for him and their teacher smiled, handing Malik the headdress and an ornate white kilt to put on over his school trousers.

"Next!" he continued, "we have our High Priest, who will be our High Priest?" Ryou tried to shuffle backwards towards the blackboard so he wouldn't be seen. It seemed to work, for Mr Shirakawa immediately pounced on the boy next to him, thrusting a long blue robe into his arms and ordering him to get into it. The boy, who Ryou heard called by the name 'Eli' frowned slightly and grumbled.

Mr Shirakawa turned back to the box of costumes and pulled out two more costumes, the first a shorter white tunic with a brown suede belt to tie at the waist. "Ah, the scribe!" he called out, holding the tunic up. "Very highly valued in Egyptian society... shall we have a girl to play this role? I think we shall, their handwriting is always so much nicer." The class laughed and Mr Shirakawa tossed the costume to the farthest girl on Ryou's left, who giggled and proceeded to tug the loose garment over her light blonde curls. In Mr Shirakawa's other hand was a much richer looking material, a long white robe with blue and gold trim.

"The Vizierate!" The teacher cried, holding the costume up for all to see. "The most important role in the Egyptian bureaucracy next to the Pharaoh! I think we'll have another girl to play this part, don't want to go giving all the important jobs to the men now, do we!" The girls in the class cheered and the last girl in the line-up, a tall girl with hazel eyes stepped forward to take the costume for Mr Shirakawa's hands. Ryou realised he was the only one left. Mr Shirakawa leant round to peer at him curiously before starting to rifle around in the box. He emerged with a similar looking white tunic, only this one, Ryou noticed, was more low-cut, and shapelier, with a headdress a bit like the Pharaoh's but straighter, and more rectangular.

"Ah..." Mr Shirakawa said, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "It looks like you have the best costume of the bunch Ryou-kun. The highest rank in Egypt's hierarchy next to the Pharaoh." Ryou felt a bit more relieved. That was something all right, at least. He saw Mr Shirakawa beam delightfully. "You will be the pharaoh's wife!"

The class erupted into thunderous laughter and as Ryou looked frantically to his side, he saw Malik had bent double in a fit of hysteric laughter. All the blood that had gathered in his face suddenly drained, and he felt sick as his stomach began to do multiple flips. He registered that Mr Shirakawa was holding the costume out, and he reached out shakily to take it.

'I can't believe I have to dress up as the Pharaoh's wife!!' he cried in his mind, his blood seeming to turn to ice in his veins. He couldn't look at the class, who were still in throes of laughter, and he definitely couldn't bring himself to look at Bakura, who probably thought he was the Queen Idiot.

"IT SUITS!!" Ryou heard a voice yell from somewhere in the classroom, and a couple of hurt-laced remarks about his appearance, but he didn't look to see from whom they had come. He just wanted to get this class over and done with and then get out of there. He tried to focus on the ceiling, and in doing this, managed to get the dress on over his head, despite his shaking hands. At least the material over his face gave him some relief, if not for a few seconds. Next came the headdress, which he shoved hastily on his head. Afterwards, he just stared meekly at the floor. He felt like crying. He didn't think he'd ever been so embarrassed in his entire life.

"Now, now class, settle down, settle down." Mr Shirakawa held up his hands in a gesture of silence and waited as the noise began to gradually lessen. "If you paid enough attention to what I was doing, you will have noticed that I have put the members of the Pharaoh's court in an entirely wrong hierarchical order. This is a part of the test I mentioned."

"What test?!" Malik cried, and Mr Shirakawa glanced annoyed over at the pretend Pharaoh.

"The test I mentioned to you last class, Malik-kun. On Ancient Egypt."

Malik looked stunned for a moment. "...But you never said we had to study for it," he remarked, staring at his teacher and ignoring the sniggers that were coughed out around the class.

Mr Shirakawa sighed. "No Malik-kun, I did not. I rather thought it was implied what with the word 'test'. Do you not think revising is necessary? Perhaps that is why you failed the Celts so miserably."

Malik's cheeks turned a light shade of pink as the class emitted a short burst of laughter, and although Ryou was embarrassed for him, he felt OK that the heat had been taken off of him for a while.

"Back to the subject," Mr Shirakawa said, turning to the front. "Would anyone like to hazard a guess at the correct hierarchical order? And I do mean hazard, Malik-kun was not the only one with an appalling test grade last term..."

The whole class mumbled and seemed to shrink down in their seats. Mr Shirakawa's expression flattened. He scanned around the class, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh now really, someone has GOT to know the answers. We've studied this. We studied this yesterday!"

The class remained silent. Ryou stayed staring down at the floor. He was glad it was quiet. That way, no one could make any more remarks about his appearance. Mr Shirakawa turned round to the row of costumed students behind him, who looked down at the floor equally fast. Ryou heard the teacher sigh in resignation. He turned back round to the class.

"No one bothered to read the syllabus. Am I correct?"

The class mumbled quiet agreements and lazy grunts. Ryou blushed furiously. If he'd known he'd had to, he would have!

Mr Shirakawa looked up at the ceiling. "You kids... do you know the meaning of study? Indeed, do you even know the meaning of AS Levels?!" No one answered him. For a moment, everything was dead quiet in the classroom. Ryou took this opportunity to risk an upward glance at Bakura. He was gazing at the teacher, his face perfectly serious. Ryou remembered, he hadn't been laughing with the rest of them. He had remained as motionless and perfect as a statue, almost like their joke wasn't worth his laughter.

He glanced quickly back down again, lest someone notice his all too frequent staring. He heard the slight intake of breath as Mr Shirakawa prepared to speak again.

"Are you sure? Really, does no one know the answers?"

Ryou remained looking down at the floor. What could anyone say to him unless they were either not afraid to speak in public or smart enough to know the answers?

Mr Shirakawa sighed again. "Well, if that's really the case, I guess I'll just have to show you myself." He turned around towards the row that Ryou stood in, and the only sounds were the shuffling of feet and quiet whispers of students in the class as Mr Shirakawa told them where to stand in the correct order. Ryou shuffled over to stand next to Malik, never raising his head to look at anybody else. When it was all done, Mr Shirakawa stepped back to explain to the class. He pointed to Malik/The Pharaoh.

"The Pharaoh. The most important member of the Egyptian court bar none. BAR NONE. I do not want any mix ups with that information, like last years World Civilisations class did." A communal sort of rumble ran through the classroom, that Ryou was guessed was the whole effort of nervous laughter.

"Next, the Pharaoh's wife. Did not have any specific duties to the kingdom as such, but was nevertheless an integral part of Egyptian society. Next, the Vizierate, then the High Priest, and then the Scribe. This is not difficult information to master people. I expect you to have it memorised by Thursday. You WILL be called up on it."

The class moaned in annoyance and more and more heads began to turn towards the back wall where an old looking clock had been mounted. Mr Shirakawa noticed. "Yes, yes... it's almost time to go home, pack up your things – " Amidst the instant flurry of bags and students scrambling to stand up and push chairs in, Mr Shirakawa had to shout to get his next words out.

"ALL COSTUMES IN THE BOX PLEASE!"

Ryou immediately yanked off his ridiculous headdress and shook his hair out, running his hands through it to get it all back to normal again. He yanked the dress off of himself almost as fast, albeit careful to not tear it, and hurried back to his seat, all but throwing his bag onto his back, Malik ambling casually after him.

He didn't register Malik's beaming smile as he felt himself get poked lightly in the ribs.

"Well, that was certainly eventful!" Malik said, half laughing. "I was a Pharaoh for a day, and you were my queen! Queen Ryou!" He chuckled, still peering over at his friend, who was staring at a smudged brown stain on the desk, trying to forget the horrible experience. Malik's smile faltered slightly.

"Ryou?"

Ryou turned his head to look at the light blue walls and the windows, wishing he were outside. His second day had somehow managed to become one of the worst days in his life so far, and although he wanted to talk to Malik, he didn't know what to say to him. He didn't want to blame Malik for the embarrassment he had felt, but somewhere, niggling at the back of his mind, his conscience kept saying, 'if he hadn't volunteered me, I wouldn't feel so bad...'

'Ryou? Ryou talk to me, are you alright?'

Malik's question went unanswered as the shrill bell rang to signal the end of classes, and the whole class instantaneously crowded through the door. Ryou dodged past Malik neatly and joined them, swerving alarmingly fast into the thronging corridors, letting himself be jumbled along into the staircase.

"Ryou! Wait, wait a minute!" Ryou barely registered Malik calling after him through the classroom door as he was herded down the stairs. Before he might have wanted to remember his attentions. Now he wanted nothing more than to forget.

_9.00p.m. _

Ryou glanced tiredly at the small silver clock on the coffee table. The file block and pen along with his copy of Darkling Thrush lay next to it, partially forgotten. He scowled at his decision to even bother starting the English assignment, it wasn't due until Thursday. He rolled his eyes and flopped back on the leather couch, bringing his hands up to rub his eyes. It was useless pretending he didn't know why he'd taken the assignment out, he'd done it to distract himself from thinking about Malik. He blushed, remembering his performance as a prize jackass in World Civ. What an idiot he had been! It wasn't Malik's fault Ryou had gotten so embarrassed, he'd just been trying to have fun.

His stomach growled but he didn't feel like eating. He'd never treated anyone that way before, it was so out of character for him, and he felt terrible. He wanted to call him and apologize one hundred thousand times, and he would have, but for the fact he had no idea how to go about it. He could picture it now, stuttering out his apology and Malik turning away; "_Leave me alone, you've done enough_". Ryou's stomach twisted.

"Why am I such an idiot?" Ryou whispered to himself, looking down at the soft beige carpet, his features contorted in a frustrated sadness. He sighed. He seemed to be asking that question a lot these days. He glanced at the paper and pen, the half-written assignment cut off blankly in the middle. He felt that he should write some more, but he couldn't summon up the energy. It wasn't that good to start with, and for the forty or so minutes he'd spent working on it, he'd been almost dragging the words out of himself. He wasn't tired but he wanted to go to bed. The idea of a small reprieve seemed soothing, except for the fact that eventually, he would wake up and have to face Malik in the morning. It was a daunting prospect, and Ryou's heart flipped, cringing at having to see Malik's angered expression and even angrier words. But he couldn't keep on sitting there reflecting on a bad memory, it wouldn't do anyone any help. Perhaps it would do him some good to get some rest. He heaved himself off the sofa and stumbled up, his legs faltering slightly after the while he'd spent not using them.

"What am I going to do?" He muttered worriedly to himself, his voice breaking slightly. He brought a hand up to rub his eyes, in a futile attempt to stop them welling up on him.

"Oh Malik... I'm a horrible person!" He half cried to himself, having stopped between his bedroom and the sofa. "I'm sorry..."

He waited in silence for a few moments, watching his tears drip forlornly onto the carpet beneath his feet. He just felt so guilty. What was happening to him? Why couldn't he just be normal?

He sighed to himself. "No point in asking questions you'll never find the answer to..." he whispered sadly, before switching the light off and walking carefully into his bedroom, shutting the door tight behind him.

* * *

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP"

"Huh.... mufnnhnysd.... hmmph.... erg...." Ryou mumbled incoherently to himself. Something in his mind registered it to be Morning. No, he didn't want it to be morning. If he wanted it enough it could, in theory, go back nine hours. He just had to wish hard enough, really.

'That's a nice theory...' he thought to himself, preparing to snuggle back down under his covers.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP"

Ryou moaned into the pillow. "Nyaaaaaah.... G'way...." He muttered groggily, attempting to swipe the alarm clock with his hand but hitting nothing but air.

"Muhhhhhh" he mumbled grumpily, opening his eyes a fraction and immediately closing them again. The light through his curtains was piercing his eyelids.

'It's the morning!!' He cried out mentally. 'Why is it so sunny? Memo to self: Purchase darker curtains. Soon.'

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP"

'Noo! I refuse to go to school today. It is not happening. Not ever! I refuse, I don't want to, I don't wa – '

""

"Arrrrgh!" He cursed to himself. His alarm clock wasn't going to stop. Worse still, he knew he had to go to school and offer his pathetic little apology to Malik. Who was he kidding, he couldn't stay home and hide... how cowardly. He shuddered, but not out of cold. Malik would hate him for sure! Ryou cringed at the memories of the day previous. He hated himself for being so stupid.

He sighed. 'Time to get up Ryou...' he thought.

Shielding his eyes from the blinding sun, he swung his legs awkwardly over the side of the bed and sat up, blinking tiredly. He brought his hand down and squinted as he attempted to get used to the light through his curtains. It was very pretty for a summer's morning. He smiled gently to himself. If he could stay watching it, he would, but he knew that he couldn't.

He stood up unsteadily, and, for a moment, pondered over whether he needed a shower. He ran his hand through his hair. No, he didn't need one, but he did want one. He didn't feel as fresh as he wanted to. He looked at the clock on his bedside table; it read _7.02am_. He had plenty of time. He padded over to the ensuite bathroom and entered, shutting the door behind him. He looked himself over in the mirror. His hair was a state.

'I look like Sonic the Hedgehog!' He thought to himself in a panicked tone. He fumbled around in the silver rack for his comb, and began tugging it through his hair. "Ow.... ow.... OWW!" Ryou cried. "Stupid tangles..." he pouted. After managing to get all the knots out – and invariably half of his hair – he stripped and stepped into the shower. He switched the water on, and shocked himself with the sudden coldness of the water. He waited for it to warm up, and then got on with washing his hair. All he could think about was Malik, and what exactly he was going to say to him as an apology. He cringed. Why did he have to be such a wimp? Anybody else on the planet would have called him up the night before and done it then. But it seemed so impersonal... that and Ryou was being an absolute coward. He squirted a glob of tea-tree shampoo onto his hand and started smoothing it through his hair. Perhaps if he practised what he was going to say...

"Hi Malik."

Ryou stopped short. 'Yes. Yes HI MALIK. Yes, that will get you far,' a sarcastic little voice said in his head.

'Shut up brain...' Ryou fired back. Oh great, how he was having an argument with himself. Inside his own head, no doubt. Perhaps this was why he really hadn't had any friends back in his old school, because it wouldn't surprise him. That and a rather unnecessary knowledge of Star Trek.

He ignored himself as he continued to lather up his hair. He breathed deeply and started again.

"Hi Malik. I... I... "

'I was thinking about you in the shower this morning.'

"WHAT?!" Ryou cried out, making himself jump involuntarily. He blushed furiously, he could feel his cheeks burning up. Since when did he think thoughts like that to himself? He was getting worse. Obviously he had some kind of mental deficiency. Schizophrenia, perhaps, or bipolar disorder. Anything to explain his apparent lack of sanity. Or perhaps that's just what it was, a plain lack of sanity, an inability to think of anything normal to say in normal situations.

He threw his head back and let the water wash the shampoo out of his hair. Clearly thinking about what he was going to say was not helping. He reached up and massaged his hair, letting the water get through to the roots. After he was sure the soap was out, he rubbed his fingers against his scalp. Sure enough, they squeaked in cleanliness.

He took the shower scrub down from where it was hanging and squeezed some of the orange-scented body wash onto it – his favourite smell. He washed himself all over, all the while thinking of what he had on as for lessons today, anything to get Malik out of his head. He relented when he realised he hadn't looked that far on his timetable, but it was relatively easy to guess. He studied English, World Civilisations, Geography, French and he'd been given the option to take on Maths as an extra subject for AS Level. He'd chosen it, despite knowing that 5 AS Levels weren't regular, but his test scores on maths had always been high. It was the same for everyone in his maths class.

He rinsed the wash off himself, and stepped out of the shower. He grabbed a towel and tied it round his hips and took another to dry his hair, before padding out into his bedroom. His blazer and trousers were exactly where he'd left them the night previous, hung on the same hanger in his wardrobe. He was a bit surprised that he'd actually had the capacity to do that. He thought back to his actions last night;

* * *

_After hanging his clothes in the wardrobe, Ryou put his pyjamas on lazily. He didn't know what to do at all. It was not late enough for the moon to light his room by its light alone, so he'd switched the lamp on his bedside table on. He wasn't tired, but he wished that he was. Sleep would be a pleasant distraction. _

_He gazed at the photograph of Arrow Bamboo Lake hanging on the wall opposite. He didn't know what had attracted him to it. He'd been in a photograph shop one day, and something about it had drawn him to it. He had already known about the Lake itself, after seeing it in a film he liked. He knew where it was located, Jiuzhaigou Valley in China. It was so beautiful, the water was so clear it reflected everything around it in a perfect mirror image. But there was something else about it. Like it had an almost mystical quality. He looked down at his feet. It was easy to become peaceful by looking at it. _

_He wondered if Malik had anything that he felt peaceful with. He felt sad when he thought about Malik, and he hated being such a bad friend to him. Malik probably didn't need anything like a photograph, he was probably happy all the time. Not as screwed up as Ryou. _

_Ryou sighed and leaned over on his bed to switch off his lamp and crawl under the covers. Perhaps tomorrow he'd have thought of an answer._

* * *

Ryou rolled his eyes and looked at the clock. _7.32am._ Almost nine and a half hours later and he still hadn't thought of anything. What a spaz.

He sprayed his deodorant on and took another shirt out from his wardrobe, buttoning it up quickly before taking his trousers and pulling them up. He didn't bother with his tie or his blazer yet, he didn't need to go. He padded out into the living room, and saw that his notepad and pen were still lying on the coffee table from where he'd attempted to do his English assignment. He wandered over and picked them up, putting them back in his schoolbag.

He wondered what to have for breakfast, but he knew he didn't want anything. He was too nervous to eat, and the last thing he wanted was to throw up all over Malik. He blushed beetroot at the thought. It wouldn't be untypical if it happened to him, of course, but still. He went to the living room curtains and pulled them open, squinting at the sudden burst of morning light. This window faced the street, and he could see people walking to their work instead of being in cars because of the nice weather. The trees on the pavement looked nice in the sun. Everything did. He turned round and gazed at the glass painting of New York City. It might be a bit trendy, he thought to himself, but it was still quite nice.

'Hmm,' he sighed to himself, looking towards the small kitchen. Perhaps if he didn't want something to eat, he should at least take something to drink. What did he have in the fridge?

He ambled over and opened it, and was instantly disappointed with himself. He didn't have anything except for a half empty carton of milk and pure orange juice. He should probably go shopping soon, although that would mean checking his bank balance...

He pulled out the orange juice and a glass from the cupboard to his left and poured it in. It didn't seem out of date, at least. After putting it back in, he went over to the couch and plonked himself down on it, gazing softly at the photos of his family. There was one that his father had sent back of himself in Egypt, and another of his mother and his sister. His forehead creased a little. He didn't really like dwelling on those photos too much, but sometimes it was hard not to.

He downed the cold orange juice and set the glass down on the table, checking the time on the clock. _7.42am. _Plenty of time.

He left the living room again, and went back into the bedroom. The sun was beginning to have a calming effect on him. His bedroom was pretty in the sun, it made everything look happier, and cheerful. Especially the portrait of the lake. He felt his hair with his hand. There was a slight damp patch on his shirt from where he hadn't dried it, but that would dry off in the morning sun. He went into the bathroom and picked up the toothbrush from where it lay on the rack, squeezing a massive glob of mint toothpaste onto it.

Brushing his teeth, his thoughts drifted back to Malik again. He realised he had better think of something to say, and fast. He would have to leave for school soon. He tried to think it over in his head but to no avail – plus he'd put too much toothpaste in his mouth and it was really stinging his tongue. He spat it out and rinsed his mouth with cold water, grinning widely in the mirror, inspecting each one of his teeth. They looked normal. A breath against the mirror confirmed that he was alright for smell, and he grabbed the comb, running it through his white hair for the second time that morning.

He shuffled back into his bedroom, and after a long catlike stretch, proceeded to put on his socks and shoes. 'What do I say to Malik??' He worried in his head, trying to string words together but the words weren't appearing. He put his tie and blazer on, and realised he was ready to leave. His face fell.

'PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC!!!' His mind screamed.

He wandered as slowly as he could out into the living room, but nonetheless was there too soon and he slung his bag over his shoulder. One unnecessary check for keys, lunch money, and breathmints, and he really had to go. It was approaching five to eight.

He unlocked the door from the inside, all the while hurriedly whispering to himself what he was going to say.

"Dear Ma – No, not dear, um.... Hi Malik, about yesterday. No that's not good... start again..." He muttered breathlessly, trying to find better words.

He was outside the door now, and fumbled around, trying to lock it too hastily.

"Hi Malik... I'm really sorry. Really sorry... should there be two really's? Perhaps three, oh god... Hmm, no that isn't right, Hi Malik, please forgive me? Perhaps if I throw myself down on the floor..."

He sighed to himself. There was nothing he could think to do apart from get to school and hope that Malik was a forgiving person.

He finally managed to lock the door and hurried down the stairs quietly, exiting out of the large communal door and jogging lightly down the small concrete steps until he reached the pavement. There was a nice cool breeze wafting along the street, and it felt good on his skin and his hair.

He looked around the street where he now lived, Heinemann Avenue. He loved that there was barely any traffic there, the area was far too charismatic to be ruined by traffic. The foliage of the trees glinted prettily in the sun, in front and behind the railings of Lomas Park. From where he was standing, he could see the water of the lake sparkle in the light. He made a mental note to take a picture of it sometime, to keep if he ever moved on.

He began walking along the street, passing large statuesque houses identical to the one he lived in beside him. He loved looking at them, they were so beautiful architecturally. He was grateful to have been given the chance to be inside one let alone live in one. Turning the corner into Lomas Park, there was a little more traffic here. The cars parked next to some of the houses were pretty, none of them were dented or scratched. There was one that stood out, a red Rolls Royce, the paint reflecting the light, making the car impossible to look at from certain angles. It was a very old-fashioned car, but it didn't look out of place in Lomas Park. Everything in and about the street was pretty and interesting.

After walking a few more yards, Ryou stopped beside the alley of scaffolding that would lead him into the bustling city centre. He could hear the noise of people pushing through the streets, the buses and the cars honking their horns, mismatched pieces of louder conversation. He grinned to himself – the first time he'd grinned properly since yesterday afternoon. He was grinning because, today, he didn't have to go into that crowded street.

His eyes turned onto the entrance of Lomas Park itself. It seemed even more attractive compared to the hustle and bustle of life in the city centre. Today, he had the option of cutting through the park to get to his school. He'd been too hot and bothered on Monday to remember, and on Tuesday he'd had to buy breathmints and other various necessities from the shops, so today was the first day he'd actually get to experience its beauty. He smiled.

He waited for the road to clear, before crossing over to the entrance of Lomas Park. As soon as he entered it, his whole attitude seemed to ease. He could see the sparkling lake to his left, and large fully green trees were dotted around the railings. An assortment of pretty flowers grew in the grass, and various parts of the path he stood on were bathed in the shade of the leaves. The path itself was split into two parts by a long running white line, with a white picture of a bicycle drawn on the left side to indicate where pedestrians and cyclists separated. Ryou quickly stepped over to the right

He began to walk along the slightly diagonal path, revelling in the beauty of the nature around him. Even the air smelt good. Crisp and clean and leafy, a fresh scent. He looked out of the railings beside him as he walked. At the moment they led him away from the town, but soon he would be able to see University Square and the University itself, and the crossing he had often used to travel into the city centre. Where he was then, was noisier than the place he lived, but quieter than the town itself. He knew this must be where the university students lived, and he could see some of them coming out in parties of three or four from their flats, chatting together as they walked along, almost beside him. The houses there were smaller, but similarly spaced out to those in his own street. There were very few cars parked outside.

There were some Cafe's along the street, and he could smell the inviting smell of cooked food, though there was a long queue of students waiting in line for one particular cafe, Clements, it was called. 'Must be popular', Ryou thought to himself. Beside him in the park, someone whizzed past him on a bicycle. A soft draught of air blew past him, but it was pleasant.

The street itself seemed quite eclectic. He watched as a young man with dreadlocks and tartan pants skateboarded past a girl who was reading a newspaper, and who had short, spiky pink hair. The sun was just as bright here, and some customers of the cafe's had chosen to sit outside in the tables, the trees providing a nice view over their heads. Ryou looked up at the sky. There wasn't a cloud to be seen; there was just an endless clear canvas of gorgeous blue. He hadn't seen a day like this in a long time.

The rest of the street was occupied by flats and houses, and Ryou thought that it was quite a nice street – though not as nice as his. Eventually it ended, though and all too soon he found himself facing University Square and the University it was named after. He sighed and looked back after the park. He would be there after school, so it wasn't too bad. The exit was between two large trees and he walked through it, now opposite the large dominating university. Students were thronging in and out of it, chatting on mobiles and talking to their friends.

He crossed over the busy road and walked along the railings of the university before turning the corner and seeing his school. The entrance was pretty much clear apart from a couple of students still running in. Ryou wondered where they were running, and looked at his watch.

_8.25am_.

"Crap!" He said to himself. He'd missed registration, now he was going to have to explain himself to his first period teacher. And he didn't even know what his first period class was! He broke into a light run towards the entrance to the school, and rounded into the car park. The last running student had already gone through the school doors, and they were closing shut behind them. Ryou sprinted up, albeit pointlessly. He would be at least ten minutes late. He jogged up the steps that led to the doors, and pulled them open, finding himself along the large corridor he'd been so uncomfortably jostled through on his first day.

For a few moments, he allowed himself a couple of seconds to breathe. He fumbled around in his blazer pocket for his timetable and scanned down the list of subjects for Wednesday. French was listed at Number One. Room 110. He was grateful that he knew whereabouts that was, after getting lost in Maths the previous day, French was at the other end of the corridor.

He didn't know which stairwell to go up, so he chose a random one and jogged up it. To his relief, it led him exactly out into the Maths and IT department. He walked quickly to the other end of the corridor, where a yellow sign hung above his head saying 'French'. Now he just had to find the room.

"104..." he muttered. "105...106....108..." He trailed off when he came to 110. 'Hokay', he thought. 'There is no possibility that Bakura will be in 4 of your 5 classes, and Malik doesn't do French. You have nothing to fear.' He prepared himself by breathing deeply and knocked gently on the door. When he heard the soft "Enter" he opened the door carefully, and immediately found no Bakura or Malik. Excellent. The teacher looked at him inquisitively.

"You are Ryou? You are a little late." The man looked to be in his forties, with slightly greying hair, but tall. Very tall.

"Erm... er... yes, sorry, um I'm new, I got lost..." Ryou was lying a little, but in all fairness he wasn't going to tell his new French teacher that the reason he was late was because he had been gazing at the ducks. And he had gotten a little lost.

The teacher looked him over sceptically, before seemingly deciding that Ryou was telling the truth.

"Alright.... but don't make a habit of it. Er... well we do have one free seat. I hope you don't mind sitting next to Yami over there in the corner."

Ryou became puzzled for a moment. Yami? He'd heard that name before. Then he turned round and saw the figure to whom his teacher was gesturing at. He was tall, with tricolour hair. He was interested in Ryou for a quarter of a second, before turning his head to look back out of the window. The teacher was still looking at him. Ryou laughed nervously and blushed a shade of flaming red.

'Oh God.'

Well, I've finally gotten it uploaded, but I really do hope you like it! I know it's been freaking ages since my last update, and I hope you're as pleased with this chapter as you were with the others. Please R&R!


	5. Confusion

**Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me SO long to update, I feel so guilty! I hope this chapter is still up to your standards! I tried to add in some humour and deep feelings together, I hope I succeeded!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!. –cries-**

**Chapter 5: Confusion**

_ Tell me who admires and loves you_

_ And I will tell you who you are_

_**- Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve**_

"I hate myself."

Malik looked up at the sky from the bench he was sitting on and groaned, letting his body fall forward onto the surface. Joey sat next to him, and sighed heavily.

"I can't believe you pulled me out of geography for this."

Malik said nothing and stayed in his position. The air was cool and warm at the same time, and the summery light of the sun shining down on them through the leaves heightened the feel of the crisp morning. The leaves on the trees blew slightly, and Joey gazed upwards at the flawless expanse of blue – not a cloud to be seen.

They were sat on one of the few light wooden picnic benches situated around the back of the school. It was a silly place to put them in the first place, and Joey could see that they weren't the only people out of class that morning. None of the school windows looked out onto their particular position, and a large tree grew beside them, shadowing them in a pretty shade. Looking sideways, he could see the steps going into the main foyer and the stretch of green grass before it. He glanced over at Malik.

"Look, I don't know why you brought me here. Isn't Yugi supposed to be... you know... That Guy."

Malik shifted slightly so as to peer at Joey from the crook of his elbow.

"That Guy?"

Joey made an uncomfortable face for a moment. "Er... yeah. You know... the relationship one. Because you're... well, you know."

Malik sighed and pulled himself to sit upright on the wooden bench, and turned to Joey, a hint of mischief glinting in his eyes. He smirked.

"Bisexual?" he spoke, drawing the word out slowly. "I like girls and guys? I bat for both teams? I am slightly inclined to the homosexual way of life? I like to eat from both – "

"Don't ruin my appetite!" Joey exclaimed, blushing and turning away from Malik. "And I thought you were supposed to be hating yourself anyways, not getting me all wound up."

Malik's smirk disappeared and his face fell into an expression of sadness, and he looked down at his feet.

"I do," he murmured, not looking at Joey. "I can't believe I did that. I humiliated him, in front of everyone! I don't know what to do."

They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments. Joey shifted awkwardly on the seat.

"Me neither."

Malik turned to look at him. "Why did I bring you here?"

"I don't know!!" Joey cried, desperately looking around. "It's weird. You and Ryou... it's freaky."

Malik chuckled slightly. "It's not that weird. It's just like you having a crush."

"Yeah, but the chicks I crush on don't have dangers!" Malik snorted and motioned behind Joey's head. The couple on the bench closest to them were looking at them, and Joey scowled, embarrassed.

"What are you lookin' at – "

"Joey relax, everyone knows."

Joey turned to look at Malik oddly. "I know that, but I don't want anyone thinking that I'm... you know... cuz I'm with you and all..."

Malik looked at him blankly. "What, GAY?"

"Shut up!!" Joey cried urgently, and hastily tried to ignore more of the stares that came from the other couple again.

Malik grinned widely and laughed. "You do cheer me up, even if you don't mean to."

Joey grimaced at him. "I'm ecstatic. Can we go and get something to eat? I'm starving."

Malik groaned. "Joey, it's nine forty in the morning! Did you miss breakfast or something?"

Joey stared at him, puzzled. "No."

Malik rolled his eyes. "Are you even going to try and help me?"

Joey froze up. "What?! Erm... I don't know, er... apologize."

Malik sighed. "You're useless."

"Well then why the hell did you bring me?"

"You're the only one amoral enough to cut class."

Joey sat and thought blankly for a moment. "Oh. Well can we go eat now?"

Malik looked down at his shoes again. "But you don't understand.... I think I might fall in love with him soon."

Joey paled and stared at his friend, sat rooted to the spot. He managed to grin awkwardly.

"Heh... You know what, I'll just go and get someone, you stay here and – "

Joey made to get up but Malik's arm reached out and grabbed Joey's arm, strong-arming him back to a sitting position. "You stay here. If you can't advise then you can listen!"

"AW MAN!!!!!!!"

* * *

'Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.'

Ryou didn't think he'd managed to learn anything from the lesson so far. He'd been desperately doing everything to keep his mind occupied away from the boy with the tri-coloured hair but nothing seemed to be working. It didn't help that he was being staunchly ignored. It just made him more nervous.

He risked a glance at him from the corner of his eye. The boy called 'Yami' was busy staring out of the window, and Ryou let out a quiet, shaky breath. He didn't know why he was so nervous around him. He was Bakura's friend. Not Bakura. Although that didn't explain much for him. Ryou wasn't good with most people.

'Especially Malik...'

Ryou shook his head slightly. He didn't know what he was going to do about that. 'He'll never forgive me...' he thought forlornly, and dipped his head to stare at his desk.

He wasn't concentrating on the lesson. The teacher was talking about the subjunctive case, but Ryou already knew it, and by the looks of it so did most of his class. One boy had even deemed it suitable enough to rest his feet upon the table and use his time as a free sleep catch-up lesson. Ryou thought that he could do with one of those himself. He'd caught himself in the mirror before he left the house and he looked like death warmed up. Though perhaps that was not lack of sleep, but his anxiety preventing any relief.

He wanted to stare out of the window but was stopped by the boy called Yami in his line of view. He didn't want him to think he was staring at him. Though it wouldn't make much difference, Ryou thought to himself. Taking a spaz over an eraser was not the ideal way he had wanted to come off.

He looked at the clock. He still had fifteen minutes left. 'How can I possibly have fifteen minutes left!' he cried in his mind. 'That's not normal!! This is some kind of conspiracy to make my day worse than it is already. If I ever meet Father Time I am going to – '

"Ryou?"

Ryou's head snapped up and he found his new teacher staring at him, somewhat akin to the stare one would give if Ryou had sprouted a second head.

"Er... do you need to hear the question for a fourth time?"

Ryou's face flushed a deep burgundy colour and his throat suddenly went as dry as sandpaper. "Erm... um.... yes, please... erm, sorry, I didn't erm, mean to – " He looked down at his desk in embarrassment as the entire class broke into a fit of barely-restrained giggling.

The teacher sighed and looked a little awkward. "I asked you to put down the blinds. The sun is hurting the eyes of some of the students on the other side of the room."

Ryou's mind blanked for a moment. Blinds? He darted his eye quickly to the left of him. The blinds. Down. But then he'd have to get through Yami, and he didn't really want that, perhaps if he could just ask –

"Ryou?" The teacher was looking at him now, a slight frown of annoyance forming on his face. The class was laughing more openly. Ryou swallowed nervously.

'Well done Ryou! Out of the three people you might want to impress most, you have made a good impression on.... ZERO!!!' Ryou shook his head slightly as the thought played out in his mind like a nightmarish version of Wheels of Fortune.

'I'm going mad...' he thought glumly to himself, as he began to stand up on shaky legs and scoot his chair back to get round the desk. He looked down at the floor as he shuffled sideways over to the large window that Yami was busy staring out of. Ryou wasn't concentrating on looking where he was going, his attention was mainly focused on not staring too bluntly at his neighbour. As a result, he noticed the strap on the floor too late. No sooner had he looked down and seen his foot compromisingly entangled in his own bag strap had he lost his balance and crashed loudly into the window, his shroud of thick hair undoubtedly whipping Yami in the face as he cried out with the impact of his waist colliding with the hard edge of the desk.

For a moment there was complete silence – then the entire class erupted into peals of laughter. He could feel the desk shaking under him with his weight, screeching backwards slightly towards Yami as his feet slid back and forth like a frightened foal. And then he was stuck in that position, not daring to get up lest he fall on his face and certainly not wanting to look at anyone else for fear of looking more idiotic than he already did. He could feel Yami's eyes boring into him – they weren't angry, but rather a mixture of perplexity and amusement.

"Er, Mr Ryou! Perhaps you should get up now," he heard the teacher say with tired annoyance, and he could hear the rest of the class muttering in the same vein.

'Oh my God...' he thought sadly to himself. 'My life is rui – '

Then, his thoughts were interrupted as he heard a loud scuffling sound, and his eyes snapped towards the window, down into the grounds, as he watched two figures approaching hastily, one running after the other, holding onto the other's arm.

"Get off me... "

"No... you're STAYING"

"NO, Get away from me you freak! I've had enough of listening to your moo goo gai pan about lover-boy – "

"That's a FOOD peabrain"

"well MAYBE if we had gone to get some when I ASKED I wouldn't be so damn hungry!"

"Oh please, you are ALWAYS hungry"

"I am not"

"You damn well are!!"

"Shut up!"

"No YOU shut up!!"

"You're not leaving!!"

"WATCH M – AAAAH!"

Ryou's face paled sickeningly as he stared out of the window and saw Malik and Joey stopped in the middle of the courtyard, Malik having launched himself onto Joey and now clinging onto his back, his legs wrapped around his waist and clawing at his hair as Joey struggled to unlatch him, one arm reaching out in an effort to get towards the door of the main building.

"GET OFF ME!!" Joey roared, as he struggled to step towards the door, weighed down by Malik's body.

Ryou could do nothing but stare, horrified, as he watched them scrap, and before he could look away he heard the sound of twenty chairs scraping backwards in unison as the entire class rushed forward in a wave, eager to see what was going on. Even Yami had turned his head nonchalantly to get a look at the spectacle.

"Class! Er... class!" The teacher, who had stood there in wonder at first, had come to his senses and was now fighting his way through the throng of students, his hands in the air as he tried to see the scene outside.

"Oh my..." he gasped upon getting close enough to see Malik and Joey. "Er... now move away, come on now, nothing to see..." His arms flailed in a backwards motion, but none of the class paid attention to him.

"YOU'RE SO PIGHEADED!"

"WELL.... WELL YOU'RE JUST A PIG!!"

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE SEEEENNNSE!!"

Malik roared right in Joey's ear as Joey tried to shake him off to no avail. By now Ryou could see other classes' windows now cramming with pupils, as everyone tried to find out what was happening.

"Oh my goodness!" His teacher cried out. "Er... erm... right nobody move! I'm going to get the Headmaster at once!" He needn't have bothered, the students just crammed themselves tighter against the window, and Ryou was forced to stand up now, his arm lodged against the wall, just in time to watch Malik get two fingers down and hook Joey's nostrils upwards, eliciting a pained scream.

"GET OFF ME YOU BASTARD!!!" Joey cried angrily.

"Not until you APOLOGIZE!!" Malik yelled, hanging on even tighter.

"FOR WHAT?! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Malik had pulled Joey's head up even more by his nose, and Ryou watched helplessly from the classroom as they raged against each other. Suddenly, in the midst of all his hopping around, Joey's head was pulled so far back that his eyes glanced upward, and Ryou's eyes inadvertently caught with his. His stomach dropped into his shoes as he watched Joey's arms start flailing and pointing wildly towards him. Malik's head snapped upwards, and for a moment, they stopped fighting, freezing along with Ryou. Malik's face then turned into a lopsided grin, and he raised his arm to wave at him. "HEEEY RYOU! IT'S ME!!"

Ryou felt faint as all eyes turned in his direction, and he stayed still, only to watch Joey elbow Malik in the stomach and throw him off with a loud 'oof!'

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ATTACKED ME!" Joey yelled, standing over Malik angrily.

"SHUT UP AND STOP WHINING YOU BIG BABY!!" Malik cried and hastily got up on his feet, running closer to the building Ryou was in.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Joey roared, and launched himself into Malik, his arms wrapping about his torso as the tanned boy was brought down to the ground with a harsh thud.

Ryou couldn't help make a slight squeak, and for once he didn't notice when Yami turned his head sharply to give him an intense stare.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Malik shouted, as he turned onto his back, grappling with Joey.

"PAY BACK TIME!" Joey cried out, raising his fist, getting ready to punch Malik direct in the face, when Malik raised his knee and caught him in the solar plexus, and managed to reverse their positions, so Malik was straddled above Joey. Joey fought to throw him off, but it was useless, Joey was strong but Malik was stronger.

"HOW COULD YOU INTERRUPT US!?" Malik roared, as he landed a punch on Joey's face. "WE WERE HAVING A MOOMENT!!!"

Ryou yelped as Malik raised his fist again, but his moment was interrupted when the door Joey had been trying so hard to get to burst open, and two teachers rushed out followed swiftly by the headmaster, grappling with both of the boys. The class carried on laughing as Malik fought off their advances, shaking Joey by the collar.

"Yeah who's your daddy Wheeler? WHO'S YOUR DADDY!!" Malik laughed as he threw his head back, the energy from the fight showing from the sweat glistening on his golden skin, his hair wild and mussed, and Ryou couldn't help but soften a little.

The teachers finally managed to wrestle Malik from Joey, and both were dragged up from the ground.

"What are you grabbin' me for?!" Joey cried indignantly, "HE started it!!"

"SHUT UP!!" Malik yelled, and turned his head towards Ryou. "Don't listen to him Ryou! He's trying to turn you against me!!"

Joey's jaw dropped open, and he leant forward to struggle wildly.

"WHAT?! OH WELL FU – "

Joey wasn't able to finish as one of the teachers yanked his arm violently towards the school building, and Malik quickly followed likewise.

"DON'T WORRY RYOU! I'LL SEE YOU AT BREAK, I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!!" With that he was dragged through the door and it slammed shut again, and Ryou was left alone, facing the entire class. For a moment, everything was silent.

"Heh... I knew you were gay."

The whole class erupted into thunderous laughter at the student's quip, and Ryou stumbled back to his place, attempting to fight his way through the hostile crowd, and sank down into his seat, as the class, bored now, moved away, and he stared down at his desk, heart racing, feeling both elated and like crying, and ignoring the stares of the boy who sat next to him.

* * *

Ryou had been sitting by himself for some time when Yugi found him.

"Hey Ryou," Yugi smiled, coming to stand before him on the soft grass. Ryou looked up suddenly, smiling gently.

"Hi Yugi... if you don't mind me asking... how did you find me?" Ryou asked, looking around him where he was seated, behind one of the pretty trees in the school grounds.

Yugi chuckled. "Your hair doesn't exactly blend in," he spoke, and Ryou noticed that a big chunk of his white mane had been sticking out from behind it.

"....Oh." He said, and then he chuckled softly too. They were both quiet for a few moments. Yugi looked back towards the main school building, where many other students were milling around, chatting, playing games.

"It's a nice day," Ryou said uncomfortably, looking up at the cloudless blue sky, the warm rays of the sun shining down on him through the foliage of the trees.

"Yeah, it is," Yugi agreed. There was silence for a few moments more. Then Yugi's legs folded neatly beneath him, and he came to sit cross-legged in front of Ryou.

"Malik's been looking everywhere for you." He said quietly, gazing at his friend, who had now resorted to pulling bits of grass from the ground aimlessly.

"I know," he sighed, and he looked up to stare at Yugi sadly.

"You know- " Yugi started, and then he stopped, struggling to find the right words. "I know he got into that big fight and it was hard for you to watch, but... well, he had his reasons."

Ryou continued looking at him, a pained expression on his face. Yugi carried on, attempting to vouch for Malik.

"If it helps, Malik doesn't usually fight. I mean, he's not a violent person – "

"I know," Ryou cut in, then felt immediately guilty. "Sorry," he said, his eyebrows drooping. "That was rude of me to – "

"No, don't be," Yugi quipped, and then giggled. "Now we've both interrupted each other. Even stevens." Ryou smiled in relief – He liked Yugi; he always seemed to know just how to be with people. Then his face straightened again.

"It's not... it's not that..." Ryou struggled, not seeming to be able to find the right words. He took a deep breath. "It's not that he was fighting," he spoke carefully, and Yugi remained quiet, which Ryou was grateful for. He wanted to choose his words right.

"It's just... it's what I heard Joey say about Malik and me. He called me 'lover-boy'." He looked at Yugi again, except Yugi wasn't focusing on him, but looking down at the ground. Ryou carried on, unsure.

"I mean I'm not even sure Joey likes me. We had a class together and it was great but then... well never mind, I think... well, do you think Malik might.... erm... you know..."

Yugi looked up, nodding to encourage him. "...yes...?" he asked softly, urging Ryou to finish with his gentle gestures.

Ryou took a deep breath. "Do you think Malik might... erm... like me?" For a moment there was silence. Then Yugi started chuckling. Ryou blushed and looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry, that was pretty out there, it was probably something else."

Yugi stopped laughing for a moment. "Ryou," he spoke, in a sing-song voice. "Of course Malik likes you!"

Ryou's head snapped up. "Really?"

Yugi giggled. "Yeah! Have you seen the way he's been acting around you?"

Ryou thought back to it. "Erm... well.... I guess..." They both paused for a moment.

Yugi's laugh slowed down. "I'm sorry Ryou, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, but... well Malik likes a lot of people – "

Ryou nodded sadly. "That's okay," he quipped quickly, too quickly. "I know, I wasn't suggesting anything – "

"Oh, no! No, I wasn't saying anything bad!" Yugi rushed on, quieting Ryou's whirring thoughts. "That's not what I meant. What I meant to say was... well Malik likes a lot of people, yes, but not in the way he likes you."

Ryou chewed his bottom lip uncertainly. "What do you mean?"

Yugi looked at him intently. "What I mean... is that... well I don't think Malik really knows how to handle his feelings."

Ryou looked shocked. "But he's so outgoing!"

"Yes," Yugi giggled, nodding rapidly. "He is! But... I don't think he's quite sure how to act around you. I think he likes you more than he likes most people, Ryou. But he's been really worried about you, and he doesn't worry a lot."

Ryou contemplated that for a moment. "That's... kind of a lot to take in," he spoke embarrassedly, looking down at the ground.

Yugi giggled, his tone instantly switching from sage to happy and chirpy. "I know, but don't worry about it!" He said. "Just be yourself."

'Easier said than done,' Ryou thought to himself, before hauling himself up off the grass.

"Well," he breathed, putting on his best happy face. "I suppose we'd better go and find Malik!" Yugi beamed widely and scrambled to his feet.

"Great!" He exclaimed, and they both started walking towards the school.

* * *

"RYOU!!!"

As soon as Malik saw Ryou wander into the familiar space he met everyone in on the first day, he rushed forward and swept him up into a massive bear hug.

Ryou's eyes widened and he spluttered slightly with the force of it, but he didn't mind so much.

Malik set him back down, and immediately started talking like a motor machine. "Oh my god I am so sorry for yesterday I didn't mean to embarrass you I would never do that on purpose I thought you wouldn't mind I was just having a laugh I thought you would hate me oh my god please forgive me?" His eyes went wide and Ryou blushed at the extent of his sad puppy look.

"Erm... but.... I thought you hated me." He stared at Malik, both puzzled and scared.

Malik blanked. "What?" he whispered. "How could I ever hate you?" His eyes lidded again and he reached to brush a soft tendril of white hair from Ryou's face.

Ryou blushed madly again. Despite his big long chat about feelings with Yugi, he was sad to discover he was still as clueless and shy as ever around Malik. He'd thought he'd gotten slightly used to him by now. Apparently not.

"Erm... well... you know, I... er..."

"Hey Malik, aren't you taking Ryou clothes shopping tonight?" Mai called over, and Malik turned around suddenly. Ryou breathed a sigh of relief, and made a mental note to thank Mai at a later date.

"OH YEAH!!!" Malik whipped round and gazed at Ryou, rocking up and down on the balls of his feet excitedly.

"Oooh I LOVE picking clothes for people! This is going to be so much fun!!"

Ryou froze, and then faked a smile. His relief had not been long enough. He decided to change the subject.

"Erm... how are you and Joey?"

Malik immediately frowned. "That boy whom I will not mention is standing over by the wall, contemplating his behaviour." Ryou looked sideways past Malik's strong frame to see Joey and Tristan having a swordfight with two empty water bottles, disappearing violently around a corner.

"Erm... okay" he replied, and unfortunately for Joey, Malik followed Ryou's line of vision and his face turned into an expression of outrage.

"That little...." he muttered conspiratorially. He turned around to Ryou, his expression angelic and far too sweet to be wholesome. "Excuse me for a moment." He smiled, before he swaggered off around the corner. They all stood there for a moment, and then they heard the sudden sound of water bottles being repeatedly bashed against skulls, and various pejoratives being hurled around.

Yugi, who had been standing next to Duke, turned bright red and shook his head, and Duke just chuckled evilly to himself.

"When. I. Tell. You. To. Look. Repentant. You. Do. It. Do. You. Understand. Me. You. Little. Ruffian. You!"

Ryou heard Malik command Joey around the corner in a soft but threatening voice, each pause filled with a bash around the head.

They all watched as Malik came strolling out from behind the corner, grinning manically as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, followed by Joey and Tristan, looking very sulky and rubbing their battered heads with their hands. Joey then looked at Tristan with disgust, who was desperately trying to shape some of his hair into its former glory.

"Oh for crying out loud – "

Tristan glared at Joey. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to get my hair the right way?" He steamed, pointing at his hair indignantly. "THIS, does not just HAPPEN, you know." The whole group chuckled and Joey groaned. Ryou watched Malik come towards him, and he smiled, avoiding Joey's conscious stare.

"Hi," Malik said again, resting his hand on Ryou's shoulder. "Sorry about that, I just had to take care of some business."

"Right..." Ryou giggled, for once not avoiding Malik's lilac eyes, which sparkled with delight. They stayed like that for a few seconds, Ryou's breath catching in his chest.

"Listen to that voice!" Ryou heard the sudden interruption, and he jumped and looked past Malik again. He almost wished he hadn't, as he almost exploded with laughter on the spot.

Tristan and Joey had thrown their blazers onto the floor and ripped their shirts open, and were now marauding around, chests half out like male strippers. Ryou turned beet red as Tristan pranced up to Joey and they made kissy noises at each other.

"Oooh!" Tristan cried in an unnaturally high voice, "I'm Maalik, and I'm sooo gaay for Ryou!"

"Oooh yes!" Joey replied, mincing around with one hand on his hip and the other flayed out in front of him. "Hey Ryou, do you like my voice Ryou?"

"We're going to candy mountain Ryou!!"

"Yeaaahh Ryou!"

Malik whipped around, and Ryou's previous laughter was now replaced by sheer embarrassment, as he stared down at his shoes. Malik's jaw dropped as he watched Yugi's palm slap his forehead in exasperation, and the rest of them fall about laughing.

"WHY YOU.... WHY.... UUGGGHHHH!" He cried, as he stormed towards them both, and everyone just laughed more.

"OOOH!!" Joey cried, as he did a mincing run around the grounds, "I'm being chased by the campest boy in the universe!"

"Oooh!" Tristan continued as he danced around on the spot, his little finger perched near his mouth. "I think... I think my GAYDAR is tingling... it's... oh my god it's ROD STEWART!"

Malik whipped around. "I DO NOT LOOK LIKE ROD STEWART!"

Ryou just stood watching the crazy scene in complete shock, stunned, when suddenly all their joking stopped and they all turned around. Marik, Yami, and Bakura were walking up past them to the car park, and all of them were staring at Ryou. Ryou suddenly felt extremely faint, his heart began to race and his face drained of colour. The vibrant eyes of the pale boy boring intensely into him shook him immensely. He watched Yami say something to him and Ryou started to shake physically too, his breath catching as he again registered his supreme beauty. And then they were gone, quicker seemingly than they had come.

Suddenly, Malik was by his side, holding onto his arm. Ryou sneaked a look up at his face, and he was staring after the group of guys almost contemptuously. He then looked down at Ryou's face, and Ryou was ashamed because he knew he had started blushing. He saw Malik swallow, and then look away.

"We should probably go," he said quietly, and Ryou was instantly awash with worry.

"Malik... what's wrong?" He asked, wishing he would look at him. Was it how he reacted to Bakura? Ryou wondered to himself – and then he pushed the thought from his mind.

"It's nothing," Malik replied, before he replaced his expression with one of joviality. "I was just thinking, that's all." Ryou turned to look at Yugi, but his friend was busy staring anxiously at Malik.

"Well, that's a first," Mai muttered, breaking the silence.

"Only with his brain," Duke added, and they all sniggered, bar Yugi and Ryou. Malik turned to look at him again, his face a picture of happiness.

"Come on!" He called to them, "I want to order my lunch!" And before Ryou could analyse him anymore, everyone moved forward, and Ryou was swept along with them.

**So... first chapter in over a year! I'm so sorry I kept everyone this long, please forgive me! R&R if you can!**


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